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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



BETH ANNE 

GOES TO SCHOOL 

By 

MART PEMBERTON GINTHER 

* w 

AUTHOR OF 

“Beth Anne Herself” 

“Beth Anne Really-For-Truly” 

“Beth Anne’s New Cousin,*’ etc. 


Illustrated by THE AUTHOR 



/ 


THE PENN PUBLISHING 
COMPANY PHILADELPHIA 
1919 



COPYRIGHT 
1919 BY 
THE PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 



Beth Anne Goes to Sehool 


M. 1919 


©CIA53023S 



£H-f3 3 » 




To 


MARGARET 

whose curls are so much like 
Beth Anne' s bright mop 






















Introduction 


When Jinny, the little waif of Carter Street, 
first came into Beth Anne’s happy life the 
Burtons were in their pleasant town house, 
and the Christmas there was the starting 
point for Jinny’s new life and Beth Anne’s 
close friendship for her, — a friendship which 
was to be tested in many ways before it came 
to its full perfection. All of this was told in 
“ Beth Anne Herself.” 

After Jinny had been sent to school and 
the Burtons had moved to Gable End, Beth 
Anne found Centerville a most pleasant place, 
particularly when the Grow Straight Club 
was formed and the Van Meters moved into 
the neighborhood. How the Niminy-pimi- 
nies were turned into Really-ites, and how 
later on Constance, the English cousin, joined 
the Club, appears in the “ Beth Anne, Really- 
for-Truly,” and “ Beth Anne’s New Cousin ” 
volumes ; but when the hospitable old country 
6 


6 


INTRODUCTION 


house was to be closed for a couple of months 
and Beth Anne was given the choice of going 
to her Grandmother Murray's with her Cousin 
Constance, or of joining Jinny at boarding- 
school, she did not hesitate for one moment. 
How her romantic notions of life in a board- 
ing-school were realized, and what was her 
final choice ; whether she preferred Brighton 
to Gable End, and the school spreads to the 
Gym Saturdays may be found in the pages of 
this present book. 


Contents 


I. 

Beth Anne Chooses to Go to School 

ii 

II. 

Really-for-Truly Good-Bye . 

3° 

III. 

Beth Anne Arrives .... 

42 

IV. 

New Rooms and a Roommate . 

56 

V. 

What Happened Next 

73 

VI. 

Another New Day .... 

93 

VII. 

Hopes and Plans .... 

I0 7 

VIII. 

A Partnership of Three . 

122 

IX. 

An Experiment that Worked . 

140 

X. 

Marian Begins to Wake Up 

i 55 

XI. 

Beth Anne Sticks to Her Purpose . 

167 

XII. 

Concerning a Great Many Things . 

185 

XIII. 

News and Gossip .... 

208 

XIV. 

Beth Anne Makes an Enemy . 

226 

XV. 

A Happy Day 

237 

XVI. 

The Play and the Note . 

251 

XVII. 

Tangled Threads .... 

272 

XVIII. 

What Washington’s Birthday 



Brought Beth Anne 

286 

XIX. 

Beth Anne Decides Once Again 

3°5 

XX. 

Home Again 

320 


7 
















Illustrations 


“ They’re All There ! ” 

“ How Do You Do ? ” 

“ Let’s Ask Everyone in Turn” 

“ Don’t Ever Speak to Me Again ” 
She Shook Out Her Flag 


PAGE 

. Frontispiece 

• 55 

. 125 

• 235 

• 294 


Beth Anne Goes to School 


9 




Beth Anne Goes to School 


CHAPTER I 

BETH ANNE CHOOSES TO GO TO SCHOOL 

“ She's late,” said Ben, looking at his bat- 
tered nickel watch for the third time. “ We 
can't go on with the practice without her, 
either. Take a squint out of the window, 
Bert, and see if she's coming.” 

Egbert rose quietly and went without a 
word toward the curtained window at the far 
end of the big room, where the girls had just 
finished setting out the glasses and plates on 
the tea-table. 

“ She told me she was going to be here early 
to-day,” Francie told Ben with some impa- 
tience in his high voice. “ That's the way 
with girls— — ” 

“ It isn't the way with Beth Anne, and you 
know it,” retorted Claire with spirit, catching 
11 


12 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


the words as she turned from the neatly ar- 
ranged table. “ She’s always here on time, 
isn’t she, Bess ? And she doesn’t fuss about 
other people being late, either, — does she, 
Jerry ? ” 

Francie laughed good-naturedly at Claire’s 
spurt of defense. “ You’re just as daffy as 
ever over Beth Anne, aren’t you ? ” he teased, 
but the sound of swift feet on the flight of 
wooden stairs that led up to the Gym made 
him pause. 

Egbert turned from the window with his 
hand just reaching for the curtain. There 
was no mistaking the quick light step. 

“ There she is, now ! ” cried Claire, tri- 
umphantly, and each one of the half dozen 
members of the Grow Straight Club turned 
toward the door. 

The knob stuck an instant, as was its habit, 
and then gave way suddenly, and Beth Anne, 
with her curls bobbing and her face alight 
with excitement, burst into the room. 

“ Oh, I didn’t know I was so late ! ” she 
gasped, catching her breath after the run 
across the snowy slippery meadows. “ I’m 
awfully sorry. I never dreamed ” 


BETH ANNE CHOOSES 13 

11 Pooh, it doesn’t matter,” declared Francie, 
generously. “ We’ve plenty of time to-day. 
There isn’t any one coming till after four, you 
know.”" 

Beth Anne nodded, and then broke out 
joyously, “ But I just had to wait till Father 
got the answer to the telephone message. I 
simply couldn’t leave till I was absolutely, 
positively sure, you see.” 

She paused for breath and Claire caught 
her up eagerly. 

“ What answer ? And what message ? ” she 
asked. “ Oh, Beth Anne, what do you 
mean ? ” 

Beth Anne waggled her head with gay im- 
portance, facing the row of interested eyes 
with relish. 

“ Of course I'll tell you,” she gurgled, 
flinging off her sweater and shaking back 
her wind-tossed curls. “ It’s a perfectly won- 
derful tor-mendous piece of news, and you’ll 
all be so surprised that you’ll just about faint 
when you hear it, — like I did. I’ve always 
wanted to go, you know, but I never could, 
though it would have been such fun ” 

Bess jumped for her and seized her firmly 


i 4 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

by the shoulders. 14 Stop gabbling, and tell 
us straight off,” she commanded. 11 What in 
the world is the matter? ” 

Beth Anne’s eyes danced and her cheeks 
grew rosier than ever, as she drew a deep 
breath for her announcement. 

“ I am going to Brighton Academy on 
Monday,” she said impressively, and then 
paused for the effect of her words. 

No one seemed to be at all thrilled. Claire 
and Egbert politely murmured something 
about its being a pleasant trip, but Ben and 
Bess cried out together in disappointment, 
“ Why, you’ve been there before. That's not 
much news ! ” 

Beth Anne’s curly head grew more erect, 
and her puggy nose elevated itself proudly. 
She looked at them all indulgently. 

“ This time,” she told them very clearly, 
44 this time I am going there to stay ; I shan’t 
come back till the very end of the term.” 

The way they cried out pleased her very 
much, for she had wanted so much to sur- 
prise them, and she fairly pranced with de- 
light as the chorus of questions and com- 
ments broke out. Bess dropped her hands 


BETH HNNE CHOOSES 


15 

from her shoulders, saying, “ Oh, Beth Anne, 
then you'll leave us ; ” while Claire and 
Geraldine declared it must be perfectly lovely 
to go so far away to school. Ben merely 
grunted, but Francie openly disapproved. 

“ Boarding-schools are no good,” he de- 
clared warmly. “ I should think your father 
would make you stay home, where you be- 
long. When I have a daughter I’m not going 
to let her stir from home till she's past twenty 
and 'most old enough to die.” 

Before Beth Anne could answer, Bess spoke 
quickly. She had put her own regrets aside, 
and she spoke with hearty unselfishness. 

“ It will be splendid for you, Beth Anne,” 
she said, warmly. 11 It will be a great lark, 
I'm sure.” 

“ But how is it that you are going off so 
suddenly ? ” asked Egbert, whose dark seri- 
ous face showed none of the joy that Beth 
Anne would have preferred to see there. 
“ You made up your mind in a blink, didn't 
you?” 

She nodded happily. 

“ You see, Mother was feeling tireder and 
tireder ever since Christmas, and Father said 


1 6 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


he wasn't going to have her break down like 
she did last year. And Miss Randolph was 
going to Florida anyway, and so he made 
Mother promise to go with her. He has to 
go away for a good while, too, — seeing after 
those decorations of his that are going to 
be put up in the capitol. So they are 
going to send me to Brighton and close the 
house " 

“ Aren't they coming back till summer- 
time?" broke in Claire, dismayed. “ What 
are we going to do without any Dramatic 
Club or Sewing Class or anything ? " 

Beth Anne laughed at the forlorn expres- 
sion on Claire's face. “ They aren't going to 
stay away till the end of the school time," 
she explained carefully. “ They're coming 
back before the first of March. Mrs. Drake 
will have the Sewing Class, I guess, like she 
did before ; and you all can go on practicing 
on some new play till Father comes back to 
coach you again. It won't be so awfully long, 
after all." 

She wound up with such a glowing face 
that Claire tried to seem as pleased as she 
expected her to be, but she did not make 


BETH ANNE CHOOSES 17 

much of a success of it. She could only re- 
peat what Bess had said the minute before. 

44 It will be splendid for you,” she told her. 
44 You've always wanted to go to boarding- 
school, haven't you ? ” 

44 For years and years and years ! ” cried 
Beth Anne, with a skip. 44 When Jinny 
started I just implored Mother to let me 
go, but she wouldn’t hear to it. Boarding- 
schools are such fun ! All the stories you 
read about them are so — so romantic and 
thrilly .” 

Ben grunted again. 44 Must have been an- 
other sort from the kind I was always held 
up in,” he said thoughtfully. 44 I've been in 
three of 'em, and there wasn't anything ro- 
mantic about them that I could see. The 
only thrill I ever had was when I saw my 
trunk going off toward home.” 

14 1 didn’t have half the fun in that Suffolk 
school that I have had since we came to live 
here,” put in Egbert. 44 1 think schools are a 
bore, myself.” 

Beth Anne's bright face clouded. She was 
troubled by this unexpected point of view. 
She knew that Ben and Egbert were the only 


1 8 BOTH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

ones whose opinion mattered, since none of 
the others had been away to school ; Francie’s 
criticism had not touched her, but she had to 
reply to the judgment of experts like these. 

“ But you two have been only to boys* 
schools,” she argued. “ I don’t know any- 
thing about boys’ schools. They may be 
penitentiaries, as you boys all call them, but 
girls’ schools are different. I’ve read about 
them, and I’ve seen Brighton, too, and so I 
know .” 

Ben did not answer, but he did not look at 
all convinced. Beth Anne did not wait for 
Egbert’s slower speech. 

“ Just you wait till you hear about the 
good times I’m having at Brighton,” she 
flashed out. “ When you hear of the jolly 
things that are happening there, you’ll have 
to haul in your horns, Mr. Ben.” 

“ Maybe,” returned Ben, with good-natured 
indifference. “ I’ll wait, though.” 

“ I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” cried Beth 
Anne, spurred on by his genial obstinacy. 
“ I’ll write a letter every single blessed week, 
and you may read it at the Gym meetings, 
and you all can see if I’m not right. You’ll 


BETH ANNE CHOOSES 19 

see that boarding-school is twice as exciting 
as Centerville ever could be ! ” 

“ All right, we’ll be glad to hear from you,” 
answered Ben, cheerfully. “ Now, let’s get to 
work. If this is your last afternoon, we want 
to get all there is out of it.” 

As they trooped to the low platform where 
they were to rehearse the drill for the after- 
noon, Bess asked, “ Does Jinny know you are 
coming? ” 

“ No, she doesn't dream it,” replied Beth 
Anne, joyous again in an instant. “ I didn’t 
know it myself until Mother told me this 
morning. They decided last night after I’d 
gone to bed, and they gave me the choice of 
going to Grandmother Murray’s with Con- 
stance, or to Brighton; and, of course, I just 
jumped at Brighton.” 

“ We’ll miss you a lot. The Dramatic 
Club and the Gym Saturdays will seem queer 
without you, for you’ve never been away 
since the G. S. C. was started,” said Bess 
rather soberly. She put an affectionate arm 
about Beth Anne as they moved along, and 
gave her a hearty squeeze. 

Beth Anne glowed at this unusual demon- 


20 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


stration on the part of matter-of-fact Bess. 
She squeezed back as hard as she could, and 
looked earnestly into Bess’s hazel eyes. 

“ Indeed, I’ll miss you all, too,” she said 
with a little thrill in her voice. " I’ve been 
so excited over going that I’d hardly thought 
of that. But there’s nobody that will take 
your place, Bess, and there can’t be any club 
or anything that will be just like the G. S. C.” 

“ Are you really going on Monday ? ” asked 
Geraldine, joining them. 

“ Right after lunch,” replied Beth Anne, 
lapsing into happy anticipation again. Her 
eyes sparkled, and she gave another little 
skip. “ Father is going to take me over, 
and I’m to room with a perfectly strange girl. 
Her roommate left last week, and so I could 
get in though it was so late in the year. It 
was wonderfully lucky.” 

“ Of course you couldn’t room with Jinny,” 
admitted Bess. “ She’s third year. It’s a 
pity, though. You mayn’t like this other 
girl.” 

“ Oh, I’ll like her, I guess,” cried Beth 
Anne. “ I’ll be apt to like everything at 
Brighton, you know.” 


BETH ANNE CHOOSES 21 

Ben's official hammer stopped Claire's 
question as to what sort of gym work she 
would do at Brighton, and Beth Anne slipped 
into line on the platform feeling that every- 
thing was going to be delightful after all. 

It was the custom of the G. S. C. at their 
Gym Saturdays to invite only about six 
guests for their little entertainment, as any 
sort of refreshment even for that limited 
number was rather a strain on the treasury. 
It had been clearly understood when the 
meetings had been started the previous season 
that the members were neither to beg nor 
borrow from their parents, but were to enter- 
tain their guests according to their own 
resources. It had taken a few severe lessons 
to teach them to limit themselves to the 
simplest things and the smallest audiences, 
but after they had resigned themselves to 
invite not more than six guests and serve 
them with lemonade, tea, or even home-made 
raspberry vinegar and root-beer, with plain 
sweet crackers or little cakes, they enjoyed 
their Saturday afternoons immensely. 

“ I'm going to send my share of the refresh- 
ment money every week," Beth Anne told 


22 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


the club, after the practice was over and they 
were arranging the crackers and teacups on 
the tray. “ I’d hate not to have some share 
in the nice old Saturdays.” 

“ Bully for you, Beth Anne,” said Ben, ap- 
provingly. 11 That’s the way to talk ! 4 Gone 

but not forgotten,’ and all that sort of thing, 
eh?” 

Francie chuckled. “ Bet you’ll wish you 
hadn't promised, after you’ve been away a 
week,” he said. “ Better take it back while 
you can, Beth Anne. You’ll need every cent 
you have to keep up with the boarding- 
school misses.” 

“ Indeed, I shan’t take it back,” replied 
Beth Anne with a laugh. “ I want to give 
it now, and I’ll always want to give it, — no 
matter how far away I am or how long I 
stay. I'll send you the money each week, 
Bess ; I'll send it in stamps, and you can get 

the money for them from any one ” She 

paused as a heavy tread was heard on the 
stair, heralding the first guests. “ Captain 
Jont will do it for you if no one else will. 
Won’t you, Captain Jont?” she asked, flut- 
tering over to the door as the ruddy Captain 


BETH ANNE CHOOSES 23 

and Mrs. Jont made their appearance on the 
threshold. 

“ Sure and certain I will, little sparrow,” 
agreed the jovial Captain in his deepest voice. 
“ I don’t know just what it is, but I’ll do it.” 

Beth Anne eagerly explained, and the burly 
Captain chuckled. “ That lets me down too 
easy, I guess,” he said, turning to his wife. 
“ We were lookin’ to do something more than 
that, weren’t we, Carrie? We didn’t know 
just what it ought to be, but I guess this 
shows us the way. May we give a bit of a 
push to these festive meetings, — something to 
help make merry with durin’ the cornin' hard 
season ? ” 

He held out a green note, and Bess as treas- 
urer beamed on him, while Beth Anne and 
the others thanked him and Mrs. Jont with 
real gratitude in their tones. 

“ That means We needn’t have that horrid 
old raspberry vinegar again this year,” said 
Claire with relief. “ And we can take it, too, 
from you, Captain Jont, for you aren’t a 
parent of ours, nor a guardian, nor anything 
like that.” 

“ We couldn’t take it from other people, 


24 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

though,” declared Ben promptly. “ It's only 
because you and Mrs. Jont sort of belong, 
you know. It would seem queer to let any 
one else give us money for eats. I wouldn’t 
stand for it from any one but you.” 

Captain Jont beamed. “ I reckon that’s 
the case, son,” he said, settling himself beside 
his wife on the wooden settee in front of the 
platform. “ Mrs. Jont and I do pretty much 
belong here, — not to mention Polly Phemie. 
That parrot’s learned more speeches from you 
young ’uns than all the rest put together. 
Hullo, here’s the young lady from the rec- 
tory and Mrs. Drake cornin’ in. My, my, 
we’re havin’ more company, too. Mr. Van 
Meter and Miss Simpkins — but hold on, little 
sparrow,” he said, as Beth Anne turned to 
skip away, “ what’s this about your sending 
stamps? Why, in nation’s name, can’t you 
bring ’em yourself? ” 

Beth Anne told them, and she got all the 
appreciation of her news that she wanted, for 
both the good Captain and his wife were 
especially fond of her, and their interest drew 
the attention of the others, so that she had 
quite a little farewell reception right then 


BETH ANNE CHOOSES 25 

and there. She was in the highest spirits as 
the drill began, and she went through the 
rest of the afternoon in sort of a rosy haze. 
She felt quite like the heroine in a story- 
book. 

When the afternoon was over and all the 
guests had gone and the door had been locked 
and the key stowed in Francie’s pocket, she 
ran home across the darkening snowy fields, 
filled with great thoughts and noble reso- 
lutions. 

“ Fll deny myself and send more than I 
promised,” she thought, drawing in a deep 
breath of the sparkling air. “ I’ll study ter- 
ribly hard, so that they’ll all be surprised at 
the wonderful marks I get, and I’ll be so 
kind to my roommate that she’ll simply adore 


Pictures crowded into her busy mind and 
she smiled happily at them. 

She saw herself studying while others 
played : she caught glimpses of herself ex- 
plaining difficult lessons to less gifted schol- 
ars : she nodded approval of herself minis- 
tering to her unknown roommate, who was 
suffering from some dangerous and contagious 


26 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


malady, stepping softly about the darkened 
room and giving comfort to the deserted suf- 
ferer with every deft touch. Her gentleness 
and her self-sacrificing skill brought tears to 
her eyes, and she caught her breath at the 
noble picture. 

“ I’ll do everything I can for her,” she said 
half aloud. “ Maybe she has some secret sor- 
row, too, that I can help to soothe ” 

It was a memory of Constance that halted 
her so suddenly. Her English cousin had 
been so very different from Beth Anne’s pic- 
tures of her that the remembrance of it put 
an end to the rose-colored, heroic dreams. Beth 
Anne came back to herself with a little giggle. 

“ I guess I’ll wait till I see her before I 
begin to be noble to her,” she thought as she 
ran up the back garden path. “She mayn’t 
be the kind that hankers after comforting.” 

Enough of her dream pictures clung to her, 
however, to send her dancing eagerly through 
the house, full of happy anticipations and 
bubbling over with good resolutions. 

She found her mother in the library before 
the hearth, where a great crackling fire was 
leaping and roaring merrily. 


BETH ANNE CHOOSES 27 

“ Oh, dearest-sweetest,” she cried, with 
the old name popping out unexpectedly as it 
often did when she was excited. “ You 
shan’t be sorry you let me go to Brighton. I 
just feel it in my bones that it’s going to be 
simply perfect ! ” 

Mrs. Burton smoothed the tumbled curls 
back from the clear forehead and smiled down 
into the wide, eager eyes. She understood 
pretty well what visions Beth Anne had 
been seeing, and she was wise as well as 
pretty. 

“ Don’t expect too much of it, chick,” she 
said gently. “ It isn’t fair, you know. It’s 
very hard for any place to live up to such 
high expectations.” 

Beth Anne hesitated. In her mind was now 
a delicious jumble of prize-winnings, of festive 
spreads in students’ rooms, of fascinating di- 
visions of time, — study period, recreation, 
semester, and all the glamour of the unknown 
was on it. To have one’s meals in a refectory 
was surely more worth while than in a mere 
dining-room. 

“ I don’t think I’m really-for-truly expect- 
ing too much,” she said slowly. “ I’ve been 


28 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


there, and I've heard about it from Jinny, 
and I've read lots of boarding-school stories." 

Mrs. Burton smiled again. She had been 
at school herself for a while, but she did not 
try to persuade her eager little daughter. In- 
stead she patted the hand that lay on her 
knee and said lightly : 

“ So my one little bird is anxious to fly out 
into the big world, is she? I wonder if she 
will be so eager to come back home again." 

Beth Anne was rather shocked at this way 
of putting it. “ Oh, of course, I shall want 
to come back. It won’t be so very long till 
vacation, you know." 

Mrs. Burton laughed her little rippling 
laugh, and Beth Anne looked quickly up at 
her, forgetting her own dreams for the mo- 
ment. The picture of her pretty mother with 
the flicker of the fire on her bright hair, and 
the gay tender light in her eyes settled deep 
down in her heart and she spoke impulsively. 

“ I'll come back as soon as you get home 
again, if you'd like me to," she offered in a 
hushed voice. It seemed to her that love 
could make no greater sacrifice. 

Mrs. Burton shook her head. “ That is a 


BETH ANNE CHOOSES 29 

wonderful offer, chick, but I'm not going to 
take you up on it," she said. “ We will leave 
your home-coming to its own time and place. 
If you've really had enough of Brighton by 
the time I come from Florida, you may leave 
that school of your dreams, but if you prefer 
to stay out the term, you may." 

Beth Anne raised her mother’s hand to her 
lips with a soft caressing movement, and then 
laid it down on her knee again. 

“ I’ll miss you frightfully,’’ she confessed 
with adoring eyes, “ but I may as well tell 
you now that I shall stay till the very last 
minute of the term. I feel it in my bones 
that I’m going to have a perfectly glorious 
time at Brighton I ’’ 


CHAPTER II 


REALLY-FOR-TRULY GOOD-BYE 

“ Oh, dear, I believe I’m going to be home- 
sick before I even start ! ” thought Beth Anne 
in dismay. “ I feel very queer and squirmy 
in my stomach. I’ll have to stop it right 
away.” 

She flung up her head and walked quickly 
around the old playroom, nodding to each 
familiar object with a firm and determined 
air. “ I just won’t begin to be weepy now,” 
she declared. 

She had run up-stairs for a last look at the 
dear places where she had had such good times, 
and she was surprised at the queer feeling in 
her throat as she closed the door of her pretty 
pink bedroom behind her and ran into the 
playroom. The queer feeling had not grown 
less at the sight of the homely shapes of the 
battered desk where she had written her 
30 


GOOD-BYE 


3 1 

plays ; at the old-fashioned square piano 
where she had banged out many an exercise ; 
at the low shelves with their well-thumbed 
books, and at the comfortable chair by the 
window where she had spent happy hours with 
those same favorites from the book-shelves. 
It was all so cozy and inviting now in the 
sunny afternoon light that the uncomfortable 
feeling grew into quite a lump, and she had 
to walk about very rapidly to keep the tears 
from popping out. 

“ Good-bye, old desk. And good-bye, old 
Tinkle-tankle, — I won’t thump any scales out 
of you for a while,” she said, nodding im- 
partially to each as she passed. “ I hope you 
won’t be lonely while I’m away.” 

Nursery tales of the fairies that come to 
work and play in deserted rooms came to her 
mind, and she smiled as she nodded again to 
her old friends. Beth Anne never could quite 
give up her belief in the pixies and brownies, 
and the idea comforted her, in spite of her- 
self. 

“ Perhaps some of the little people will 
have their parties here while the snow is so 
deep outside,” she thought. “ I wish they 


32 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

would leave their visiting cards behind them, 
so that I’d know the poor old room hadn’t 
been lonely while I am gone.” 

She liked this notion of the fairies, and she 
left the room happier for it, pausing only for 
a second to fling a kiss through the frosty 
pane toward the Whispering Tree, whose bare 
branches flung a good-bye back to her, and to 
wave her hand to the roofs and windows of 
Stepping Stones, in memory of the day so 
long ago when Jinny and she had watched 
the Van Meters’ furniture vans bringing the 
Niminy-piminies into her happy life. 

“Good-bye. Good-bye,” she said aloud. 
“ I’ll leave you all to the fairies, my dears, 
and I know you’ll have a good time.” 

She closed the door behind her softly, as 
though the brownies were already within, and 
she ran down-stairs, forgetting all her qualms, 
for her mother was waiting there in the hall 
and the jingle of sleigh bells came gaily in 
through the doorway through which her fa- 
ther was carrying out her suit-case and calling 
to her to make haste. 

But as Beth Anne hopped down the last 
step, she stopped suddenly, with a little cry. 


GOOD-BTE 


33 

“ Oh, my red diary ! I've forgotten it," 
she cried, dashing up-stairs again at the top 
of her speed. She flung open the playroom 
door, and rushed for the desk, where she had 
the fat red book in a twinkling, and was 
speeding down the wide stairs before her 
mother had time to reach the portico. “ I 
wouldn't have left it for worlds," she breathed, 
tucking it under her arm. “ I've never been 
without it since the first one you gave me 
that Christmas when Jinny came to us." 

“ It might have been possible for us to send 
it to you," smiled Mrs. Burton r as she went 
cautiously along the icy pathway to the 
stepping stone. 

Beth Anne shook her head emphatically. 
“ It would have been too late," she declared. 
“ I always have to write things down while 
they are sizzling inside of me, or else some- 
how they don't sound right. And I do so 
want to remember just how I feel at Brighton 
the very first night. I might forget if I 
didn't write it straight off, you know." 

Her mother laughed a little, but she said 
nothing, and they were soon stowed cozily on 
the back seat of the sleigh, and Mr. Burton 


34 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

had taken his place beside George, when 
Carline, appearing breathlessly from the back 
of the house, thrust a package into Beth 
Anne’s hands. 

“ ’Tain’t much, honey,” she said hastily. 
“ Enjiy it to yer heart’s content. It won’t 
hurt you none.” 

Beth Anne bubbled with pleasure, and 
though she could not reach her old nurse, as 
the horses sped down the drive she hung over 
the sleigh, throwing kisses till they turned 
the corner into the road, and Carline, stepping 
stone, and the house itself were out of sight. 

“ Dear old Carline, she’s always so nice to 
me,” she said with a sigh of satisfaction as 
she nestled down into the warm fur robes and 
examined the parcel curiously. “ It looks so 
sweet with the red cord and the picture on 
the wrapper that I hate to open it ” 

“ Why not wait till to-night? ” suggested 
her mother. “ You’ll have more time, and it 
will seem like some one from home. Carline 
won’t expect you to thank her now. You 
can write, and she’ll like that much better.” 

Beth Anne was always ready for agreeable 
suggestions, and she nodded happily as she 


GOOD-BYE 


35 

snuggled down close beside her mother. 
Everything was rose-colored again now, and 
she was thrilling with the sense of adventure. 
The rhythm of the horses 7 feet on the frosty 
road, the gay jingle of the bells, the swift 
crunch of the runners over the snow crust 
made her heart leap within her. The memory 
of the quiet sunny playroom flashed before 
her for a second, and already it seemed to be 
part of another existence. “ The fairies won't 
be bothered by me for a long long while , 77 she 
murmured, half aloud. 

She laughed a little at her mother's inquir- 
ing look, but she shared her fancy with her, 
telling her of the good-byes in the playroom, 
and Mrs. Burton patted her hand. She al- 
ways understood things, without a lot of 
words on the subject. 

Beth Anne went on. “ It's perfectly glori- 
ous to be going to boarding-school ! 77 she said 
gaily, and with a little bounce on the seat. 
“ If you and Father were only going, too ! 77 

Mr. Burton turned to grin at her. “ I 7 d 
look sweet in a middy blouse, wouldn't I ? 77 
he asked. “ I don't believe, either, that any 
of the young ladies have whiskers. I 7 m afraid 


36 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

I'd feel too conspicuous, Snippet, so I’ll have 
to decline for the present.” 

She giggled at thought of her tall father 
in middy blouse and pigtails, but she had not 
time for further words, as they drew up to the 
station with a flourish, all the little silver bells 
on harness and shaft ringing out a merry tune, 
and Beth Anne felt that her journey had really 
begun. 

She felt much more of a traveler when the 
six members of the G. S. C. burst out of the 
station in a body and showered her with fare- 
well speeches and parting gifts. Each one 
of them had some packet, either a letter or 
some little remembrance, that they thrust on 
her, and she took them as best she could in 
her surprise, answering the gay little speeches 
with eager thanks. 

Then the train hooted into sight, swept up 
to the platform, and Beth Anne lost count 
of time. She knew that the G. S. C. all shook 
hands with her ; she heard all sorts of good 
wishes ; she was conscious of tearing herself 
away from them to fling herself on her 
mother’s shoulder for a last frantic embrace, 
and then she knew that she was hurried up 


GOOD-BTE 


37 

the car steps and guided to a seat, while the 
train began to move slowly off, leaving her 
with a memory of her mother's last whis- 
pered words lingering above the confusion of 
the moment. 

“ If you should feel lonely, my dearest 
chick, try to make some one else happy," 
she had said, and Beth Anne repeated the 
words mechanically as she flattened her puggy 
nose against the window to catch the last 
glimpse of the group on the station platform, 
with her mother's graceful figure in the midst 
and her mother's face shining out to her 
above all the others. 

“She's always just right, isn't she?" she 
said ardently. “ I'm awfully lucky to have 
such a splendid mother." 

“ I did the best I could for you," replied 
her father, with a pretense of anxious care. 
“ I am glad she is satisfactory." 

Beth Anne laughed. She felt content with 
her father's real views on the subject, as they 
were both ardent in their adoration of her 
pretty mother ; and she settled down in her 
seat with the memory of the smiling face 
still before her. Mr. Burton got out papers 


38 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

and magazines, and the journey began, as the 
engine gathered speed and the landscape be- 
gan to fly past with increasing swiftness. 

There were no interesting people in the car. 
Two traveling men in eager talk, with their 
expensive bags and suit-cases covered with 
foreign labels very much in evidence : a prim 
lady in black silk, a traffic policeman sound 
asleep, and the conductor sorting his tickets 
at the other end of the car made up the 
whole, and Beth Anne soon tired of looking 
at them and trying to make up stories about 
them. Sometimes the people on the trains 
had all sorts of stories sticking out all over 
them, but to-day she found them very prosy. 

“ I guess I’m thinking too much of board- 
ing-school/' she thought, with a feeling of 
importance. 

She wondered what the prim lady in black 
silk would say if she knew where Beth Anne 
was bound. She wished the traffic man would 
wake up. “ He'll ride past his station," she 
thought, rather disturbed, and then she forgot 
all about traffic man and prim lady, for the 
snowy landscape fleeting past the window was 
changing into an entirely strange one, and 


GOOD-BYE 


39 

she suddenly was conscious of a cool, empty 
sort of feeling beneath her breast bone. 

“ It doesn’t look a bit like it did last sum- 
mer,” she said in a rather small voice, and 
her father looked up quickly. 

“ I’ve never seen this part in winter,” she 
explained, trying to speak carelessly, like an 
old traveler. “ It looks very different, doesn't 
it?” 

“ It is different,” he explained, not noticing 
her diminished air. “ We’re on the L. and P. 
now. The express changes roads at Carbon, two 
stations back,” and he went to his paper again. 

It was a very little thing, this new route, 
but somehow it made Beth Anne’s empty 
feeling grow a bit worse. She stared out of 
the window, but got no relief from the white 
fields and frozen streams : she looked about 
the car for diversion, but it all seemed sud- 
denly stupid and horrid. She tried to think 
of something to chase away the dumpy feel- 
ing, but she could not. Just then her father 
looked up and smiled and nodded, glancing 
at the pile of small packages on the seat 
beside her. 

“ They’re a pretty good bunch of chums, 


40 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

aren’t they, Snippet? ” he said, casually. “ I 
tell you, a critter is rather lucky who has 
such a set of comrades.” 

And then he went back to his reading 
again, but Beth Anne’s whole world was 
changed. The cool empty feeling faded away 
like frost before an April sun, and she turned 
to examine the jumble of farewell offerings 
again with even more enjoyment than she had 
felt on her first sight of them. Ben’s bold 
scrawl on one box and Geraldine’s correct 
writing on another brought them so vividly 
to her that she patted them with a sudden 
warmth of memory. 

“ You nice things,” she whispered, half to 
the packets and half to the memory. “ It’s 
awfully jolly to be going away, and getting 
presents, and everything. I wonder what 
Bess has in that long envelope? It feels like 
papers ; but I won’t open any of them till to- 
night, when Jinny can see them, too.” 

The thought that she should so soon be 
with Jinny at the long-desired Brighton filled 
her with a whirl of happy musings, and when 
her father folded his paper, and began to reach 
for their wraps, she quite lost her head. 


GOOD-BTE 


4i 


“ Oh, Father, we can’t be there so soon ! ” 
she cried, with a delicious thrill going up and 
down her spine. “ It isn’t Brighton yet, — 
really-for-truly it isn’t ! ” 

Her father chuckled at her agitated face, 
and began helping her into her coat. “ Sure 
thing, Snippet. See, there are the roofs of 
the venerable pile peering at you over the 
tree-tops,” and he motioned to the nearing 
cluster of buildings, seen fitfully between the 
tree clumps as the train slowed to the station. 

Beth Anne gathered up her precious pack- 
ages in a great flutter, and as the train stopped, 
she followed her father into the aisle, where 
the prim black silk lady blocked their progress 
for a whole minute while she entrusted the 
trainman with several small bags and parcels. 
Beth Anne stood first on one foot and then 
on the other. It seemed that they never 
should move again. 

Stooping, she peered under the nearest win- 
dow-shade toward the platform of the little 
station. 

“ Oh, Father, there’s Jinny waiting for us,” 
she cried with a wriggle. “ Do let’s hurry 1 ” 


CHAPTER III 


BETH ANNE ARRIVES 

“ I was so afraid you hadn’t come/’ said 
Jinny, after a rapturous meeting. “ Every- 
body had gotten off before I saw you." 

Mr. Burton was far down the snowy plat- 
form seeing after the luggage, and the roofs 
of Brighton were peeping at her over the row 
of dark-green pine trees back of the station. 
Beth Anne saw her trunk and suit-case being 
put into the express wagon, and she felt that 
she was really at the very goal of all her 
hopes. 

“ We had to wait for a very particular 
lady," she told Jinny absently. Her eyes 
sparkled as she saw the expressman start off 
at a brisk pace. “ Oh, Jinny-pinny," she 
broke out hilariously, “ I’m really-for-truly 
here ! I’m so glad I don’t know what to do. 
Everything looks splendid, too. Brighton is 
42 


BETH ANNE ARRIVES 43 

perfectly sweet in winter, I think/’ and she 
could not repress a prance as she ended, “ I’m 
going to stay till the very end of the term.” 

Mr. Burton joined them before Jinny could 
reply. “ Come along now,” he said briskly. 
“ I have to go back on the next train, you 
know. We must make better time than this.” 

Nothing pleased Beth Anne better than 
haste just at this moment, and she clutched 
Carline’s parcel under one arm and Ben’s box 
under the other — Jinny had taken the rest in 
her charge, — and she trotted along nimbly, 
trying to keep up with Mr. Burton's long 
strides and Jinny’s swift, easy pace. She was 
a poor walker, but she made up in little runs 
and skips what she lacked in speed, and they 
were soon inside the big iron gates that 
guarded the campus and school buildings. 

Beth Anne was delighted with the snow- 
covered campus and the groups of hurrying 
girls with a big B on their blue and white 
sweaters. “ I think it is perfectly sweet in 
winter time,” she repeated breathlessly as she 
followed the others up the drive. 

The plain old houses with their many elab- 
orate dormer-windows and tall brick chim- 


44 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

neys had indeed lost none of their dignified 
charm with the falling of the summer leaves. 
They showed to advantage in their frosty 
setting, and the golden light of the late after- 
noon sun flashed out a welcome from every 
one of the many panes in the rows of windows 
that looked down on Beth Anne, trotting 
happily in the wake of her guides and smiling 
back an eager response, like a reflection of 
that same golden sunlight. 

“ It's perfectly sweet,” she reiterated, under 
her breath. “ And I know I'm going to love 
it,” and she took a long look about the quad- 
rangle before she turned to mount the steps. 

The campus was a level snowy square edged 
with tall old trees and bordered by stone 
walks and an ample drive. One side gave on 
the village street and on the other three sides 
stood the school buildings in a sedate and 
friendly row. The recitation halls and re- 
fectory, together with the president's house, 
were old colonial mansions of the best type, 
remodeled inside to meet the needs of the 
students but outwardly left just as they were 
in the old days of unhurried living. To Beth 
Anne, bred to see beauty in simplicity, there 


BETH ANNE ARRIVES 


45 

could be nothing better than these old houses 
showing out among the bare branches of their 
neat elms and oaks, and she looked with re- 
spect amounting to idolatry at the small house 
where the Seniors lived apart. 

“I wonder if I’ll ever live there ?” she 
thought, with a tinge of awe at the mere idea, 
and she went up the three flat ample steps 
into the hallway of the principal's house in a 
perfect maze of excitement, admiration and 
hope. 

The reception room was very cozy. A fire 
crackled on the hearth, and the brass andirons 
winked cheerily at the newcomers. Some- 
how that rosy fire made Beth Anne like the 
principal before she saw her. There was 
something in the room, too, that seemed 
homelike and welcoming. A photograph of 
Boticelli's Holy Family hung where the wink- 
ing light fell full upon it, and on the pie-crust 
table near the hearth was a basket of sprawl- 
ing ground-pine, such as Beth Anne had 
often brought from the woods on the moun- 
tain. A fat stocking-bag, undoubtedly full 
of invalid hose waiting the needle, spoke of a 
human side that had not occurred to Beth 


46 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

Anne as being possible in a president of 
Brighton. Altogether it was a reassuring 
room, and though Jinny had left them on its 
very threshold to run away for a short while 
to her class-room, Beth Anne’s tremors began 
to subside. 

A quick footfall sounded in the hall, and a 
pleasant, alert looking young woman came 
into the room. Her eyes were bright and 
friendly, though her manner was dignified 
and grave. The gray threads in her hair sur- 
prised Beth Anne, who had at first sight 
thought her one of the Seniors. 

“ I am sorry to say that Miss Cary cannot 
see you,” she said in a most agreeable voice 
to Mr. Burton. “ She is quite indisposed. A 
heavy cold on her chest keeps her to her room 
this afternoon. I am Mary Lee, her new as- 
sistant, and I will attend to the registration 
of your daughter. I asked Virginia Ran- 
dolph to bring you in here, as there is some 
trouble with the radiator in the office, and it 
is very cold in there.” 

Beth Anne thought she had never seen so 
attractive a person in high authority. Teach- 
ers were so apt to be superior, or severe or 


BETH ANNE ARRIVES 47 

plain, or unsympathetic; but this pleasant 
lady with the clear eyes and bright waving 
hair seemed to fit in with the basket of ground 
laurel and the corpulent darning bag. “ I’m 
going to simply adore her,” she thought in 
her impulsive way. “ I wish she were really 
the president.” 

After the necessary preliminaries were over 
and her father had risen to go, Miss Lee 
turned to him with a very nice smile. “ I 
wonder if by any chance you could be Carol 
Murray’s husband?” she asked. “I heard 
that she had married some one by that name, 
but it has been so long since we were within 
speaking distance of each other that I have 
almost forgotten whether I have it right.” 

Beth Anne was delighted to hear her father 
assure her that there could be no doubt of her 
mother being the same Carol Murray with 
whom Miss Lee had been at preparatory school 
so long ago, and she went out from the cheer- 
ful parlor after some brief talk, feeling even 
more in love with Brighton than ever. 

“ It’s so nice that she should have known 
Mother,” she said, as they closed the door 
behind them and went out into the crisp air. 


48 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

“ I guess Mother will be glad that she is here. 
It will seem almost like ” 

“ Phew l ” whistled her father, glancing at 
the clock in the opposite church tower, “ I'll 
have to cut it short, Snippet, if Pm to catch 
the train. Where’s that Jinny-girl, who 
promised to take you off my hands in exactly 
fifteen minutes ? I don’t want to desert you 
in mid-campus, but if she doesn’t appear in a 
jiffy, I’ll have to run.” 

“ Here she comes,” announced Beth Anne, 
catching sight of a fleeting figure on the other 
side of the quadrangle, and almost before she 
ended Jinny was with them, very much out 
of breath and very eager to show Mr. Bur- 
ton the refectory and the dormitory where his 
daughter was to live. 

“Can’t possibly spare another second, my 
dear,” protested Mr. Burton, looking at his 
watch. “ I have exactly one minute and 
three-quarters to get that train. That’s the 
dormitory over there, isn’t it? I’ve seen 
most of the class-rooms, and I’ll take the rest 
on trust.” 

“ Oh, but please,” begged Jinny. “ It won’t 
take a flash of an eye to look over at those 


BETH ANNE ARRIVES 49 

two windows with the ivy alongside of them, 
— there, right next to the stone chimney on 
the side wall. There’s where Beth Anne is 
to room. I know Mrs. Burton will like to 
know ” 

He flashed the required glance at the win- 
dows she indicated, and then he stooped and 
kissed them both hurriedly, with a second one 
for Beth Anne, who was disposed to cling to 
him. “ It all seems very nice, Snippet, my 
dear,” he said briskly. “ There, give me an- 
other one for your mother. And now, I’m 
off. Good-bye. Good-bye ; ” and he really 
was off, running down the drive toward the 
street with a swiftness that left no room for 
fear that he would miss the train. 

“ And now,” said Jinny, slipping her hand 
through Beth Anne’s arm, “ and now I’m to 
show you about. We’ll go through the class- 
rooms first and then cut across the campus to 
the dormitory. You’ll want to see your room- 
mate, I suppose, and she’s apt to be in for a 
while now.” 

“Does she know I am coming?” asked 
Beth Anne with her eyes glued on the window 
where she could dimly guess at a figure mov- 


5 o BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

ing within. “ What is she like? And why 
did Miss Lee say that I was just the one for 
Marian Lathrop ? ” 

Jinny did not answer for a second, and 
then she seemed to be trying to put her words 
into just the right form. “ I think she knows 
you are coming, for I told her at luncheon 
that I expected to meet that train,” she said 
as she led the way into the nearest building. 
“ I don’t know her very well. She keeps 
pretty much to herself, I believe. This is the 
chapel,” she ended abruptly, opening a door 
which showed a quiet interior with platform 
and reading desk. 

Beth Anne promptly forgot Marian Lathrop 
in inquiries as to hours of services and whether 
it was compulsory to attend the early chapel. 
Then Jinny showed her the class-rooms 
where the first year students worked, empty 
now for a brief interval, and after that they 
peeped into the library and saw girls in sweat- 
ers with the big B on them, girls with fur 
coats, and girls with no coats at all, all busy 
with the books. Beth Anne was delighted 
with the cheerful, attractive reading-room and 
Jinny had to pull her away, reminding her 


BETH ANNE ARRIVES 51 

that they had no time to go in now if they 
were to see Marian Lathrop before chapel. 

Beth Anne danced along after that, and 
although there were still many places she 
longed to inspect again, as her memory of 
them in the past visit to Jinny on class day 
was very faint, she nevertheless passed them 
easily by, and was mounting the stairs that led 
to the upper floor of the dormitory before 
Jinny could stop her. 

“ But why must I go to the matron’s 
room? ” she asked rather impatiently. “ I’ll 
miss Marian Lathrop and it will be awfully 
stupid to have her come in afterward and 
find me in her rooms. I’d rather see the 
matron afterward.” 

She had to give in, though, and in spite of 
her impatience she found Mrs. Vare brisk and 
amiable. She was despatched after a short 
delay, with her dormitory number and key, 
duplicates of which Mrs. Vare had in her own 
capacious pocket. 

“ You see,” Jinny explained as they 
climbed the stairs together, “ we all have 
keys to our rooms, and we have to keep them 
locked. Miss Tapton and Mrs. Vare have 


5 2 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

duplicates, and no one, not even the chamber- 
maids, can get into the rooms unless we let 
them.” 

Beth Anne was not deeply interested in the 
system of locking up, but she nodded com- 
prehension. “ I see. It’s not bad, though it 
must be a bother to remember to lock your 
door every time,” she admitted, with her eyes 
on the rows of doors before her. “ I'm afraid 
I'll forget. I’m not used to bolts and bars, 
you know.” 

“ Oh, you mustn't forget. You'll get de- 
merits,” said Jinny, turning to the right 
and leading the way down the corridor. 
“ Here’s my room. We can’t stop now, but 
you can run in any time. I'm only six doors 
from you, although of course I'm under an- 
other supervisor. You have Miss Tapton at 
your end of the hall.” 

Beth Anne had no time to say how glad 
she was that Jinny had elected to keep her 
old room when the new dormitory was built 
and the older students moved. She had in 
fact no chance even to count the doors from 
Jinny's door, for a young lady with large 
tortoise shell spectacles came out of a room 


BETH ANNE A R RIFES 53 

directly in front of them, and Beth Anne 
was hastily introduced to her supervisor, Miss 
Tapton. 

Miss Tapton smiled kindly at Beth Anne’s 
evident embarrassment, and told her to take 
her time getting settled. 

“ You need not come to chapel to-day,” she 
said as she hurried off. “ I shall be in later 
to inspect your things.” 

Beth Anne looked after her with a doubt- 
ful expression. “ Does she have to inspect 
every last thing I have with me, right straight 
off? ” she asked. “ I don’t want to open the 
good-bye things till to-night, but I suppose 
I’ll have to, if it’s the rule.” 

Jinny laughed as she knocked at the next 
door. “She isn’t such a dragon as all that,” 
she declared rather warmly. “ She’s awfully 
nice when you know her. It’s rules to ex- 
amine trunks and bags, but she doesn’t poke 
into everything. She just lets you show her 
your things yourself. I wonder if M. Lathrop 
is in, after all. There isn’t a sound in the 
room. I’ll have to try again.” 

Beth Anne’s heart pounded in time with 
the tap-tap on the door panel, for her quick 


54 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

ear had caught a cautious movement inside 
as that of some one softly dragging a chair 
across the floor, and she felt certain that her 
new companion must be within. 

“ Maybe she's busy and doesn't hear us," 
she ventured, but Jinny was knocking again 
and paid no attention. 

“ I'm sure I heard some one," she thought 
very positively, and then she actually jumped, 
as a clear voice spoke through the closed door. 

“Come in!" it called, just as calmly as 
though it were answering the very first 
summons. 

Jinny's hand was on the knob, but she 
hesitated, expecting the door to be opened to 
them. “ It's Marian sure enough," she whis- 
pered swiftly. 

The voice called, rather more insistently 
this time, “ Come in, please ! " 

So Jinny turned the knob and the door 
swung on its hinges. Beth Anne thought 
she had never felt so queer in her life as at 
that moment when she stepped into the quiet 
little sitting-room. 

“ I must have been too mixed up to hear 
straight," she thought, as she glanced ovei/ 



HOW DO YOU do: 















BETH ANNE ARRIVES 55 

Jinny's shoulder. “ I just couldn't have heard 
that chair move, after all." 

And then she heard Jinny saying, “ This 
is Beth Anne Burton, your new roommate, 
Marian," and she went forward eagerly. 

“ How do you do ? " she said, a little breath- 
less from her surprise. “ I — I hope we're not 
bothering you, — coming in when — when you'd 
rather be quiet ? " 


CHAPTER IV 


NEW ROOMS AND A ROOMMATE 

Marian Lathrop sat in a chair near the 
window. One arm was flung over the back 
of her chair and the other hung carelessly by 
her side. She looked as though she had been 
sitting there for a long while. 

She was pale and slender and rather oddly 
dressed : for she wore her hair twisted into a 
sort of flat pompadour over her white fore- 
head, and she had a narrow black velvet 
band around her long throat, while her dress 
was extremely plain and childish. She was 
evidently about Beth Anne’s age. 

“ How do you do ? ” she said in a clear, 
level voice, not stirring as they advanced. 

She looked searchingly at Beth Anne, who 
was faltering out her greeting in an embar- 
rassed way, and walking straight into a tiny 
India stool that stood in her path. There 
56 


A ROOMMATE 


57 

was no embarrassment in Marian Lathrop’s 
face. She sat quietly in her chair, looking 
searchingly at Beth Anne. 

“ You'll bump into that stool, if you aren’t 
careful,” she said, unexpectedly. “ Come 
around by the silly thing, if you must shake 
hands.” 

Beth Anne giggled nervously and then 
caught her breath. She was very much put 
out by this strange girl, but she would not 
show how agitated she was. She avoided the 
little stool and, holding out her hand, she 
said with the best grace she could : 

“ I’m very glad to come to Brighton. I 
hope you don’t mind my coming in with 
you.” 

Marian still stared at her, but in her hazel 
eyes there was something Beth Anne did not 
understand. It was more endurable than the 
scrutiny of the minute before, however, and 
there was a softer note in Marian’s voice as 
she spoke. 

“ No, I don’t think I shall mind your shar- 
ing the rooms, now that I’ve seen you,” she 
replied with candor. “ You aren’t a bit like 
the last one.” 


58 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

And then she shook hands heartily, and 
turned to Jinny. 

“ Won’t you sit down ? ” she asked, with 
more cordiality, motioning to an easy chair, 
but Jinny shook her head. 

“ Chapel bell will ring in about two min- 
utes, and I have to stop at Miss Cole’s for my 
Latin papers,” she replied lightly. “ I’ll be 
in again later on, — I just ran up to introduce 
you two in a proper and stylish manner.” 

As Beth Anne was about to speak a bell 
sounded from across the campus and Jinny 
started. “ I’ll have to run for it,” she said 
hastily. “ See you at recreation, both of you,” 
and she was off, flying down the corridor. 

There was a moment of absolute silence, 
but somehow it was not an awkward or un- 
pleasant one. Beth Anne was to learn that 
this was one of Marian Lathrop’s peculiar 
traits, — that she could sit without uttering a 
word and yet be an agreeable companion. 
At present, indeed, Beth Anne rather dreaded 
her speeches, for she had a feeling that they 
could be very cutting. But as the chapel 
summons would soon ring, she felt she must 
try to be sociable. Just as she was opening 


A ROOMMATE 


59 

her lips Marian broke the silence, rising as 
she spoke. 

“ Let me show you the place,” she said in a 
rather stiff way. “ You’ll study and all that 
in this room, of course. We have it together. 
If you want to put any of your things in here, 
you’re perfectly welcome to, though I don’t 
see how much more can be stuffed in.” 

Beth Anne agreed with her, as she looked 
about the comfortable little room. There was 
a wide flat-topped desk with a great many 
drawers, a fat waste-basket beside it, and a 
very nice chair before it : there was a low 
couch with a great many plain serviceable 
puffy pillows on it : there was a table which 
had begun life as a tea-table but was evidently 
not in use, for it was piled with books and 
papers, until the brass kettle and gay plates 
were almost out of sight : there was a dic- 
tionary stand with an enormous reference 
book open on it : and, what with the usual 
window seat which every self-respecting girl’s 
dormitory is bound to have, and a number of 
plain comfortable chairs, there was not an 
empty space in the whole cozy room. 

“ I don’t want to put in anything except a 


6o BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


couple of photographs that I have in my 
trunk,’' said Beth Anne seriously. 44 1 can 
tack them up anywhere.” 

She wanted to say how cozy she thought 
the room, in spite of its plainness, but some- 
thing in her new roommate’s tense manner 
kept her silent. She felt that she was not 
expected to speak. 

44 This is the bathroom,” said Marian, open- 
ing a door to the left. 44 My room is along- 
side of it. We share the bathroom, of course. 
Your room is opposite,” and she led the way 
across the sitting-room again to the right and 
flung open the closed door. 

It was all done so quickly that Beth Anne 
could only murmur a word of praise for the 
dainty little bathroom when she was ushered 
into her own tiny bedroom, which was as bare 
and spotless as an unoccupied bedroom in a 
college or school is apt to be. Beth Anne’s 
heart sank a bit at the scanty furnishing, but 
she did not give speech to the words that 
trembled on her ready lips. Her trunk and 
suit-case caught her eye ; she remembered that 
her own pink toilet furnishings, — brush and 
manicure set, bureau scarf, bedside rug and 


A ROOMMATE 


61 

all, were tucked securely away inside the 
bulky trunk, and she knew that the bare 
little room would soon blossom into a rosy 
comfort when the key was turned. 

Through the ivied window she caught a 
glimpse across the campus of the girls gather- 
ing at the door of the chapel, their gay sweat- 
ers and scarfs making a spot of color on the 
white and frosty scene. Beyond the roof-tops 
the dim line of distant hills showed blue and 
clear in the late afternoon light. 

“ It’s perfectly sweet," she said with a happy 
little laugh. “ I know I'm going to be just as 
gay as a lark here. You don't mind if I be- 
gin to get out my things right away, do 
you ? " 

She was fishing in her pocket for the keys, 
when the chapel bells began to chime, “ One, 
Two, Three, Four," and Marian spoke hastily. 

“ I’ll have to go now," she said, catching up 
a long cloak that lay on the couch. “ You’d 
better not open your things before Miss Tap- 
ton comes. She was in just before you got 
here, and she said she’d be back after 
chapel." 

She hurried off without any more words, 


62 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


leaving Beth Anne standing by the window, 
and her slim figure in its long brown cloak 
was soon seen crossing the snowy level toward 
the chapel entrance. 

Beth Anne stood watching the groups of 
girls, and counting the strokes of the bells as 
they repeated their sonorous “ One, Two, 
Three, Four,” and then burst out into the 
stately old melody that was one of Beth 
Anne’s favorites. 

“ Oh, come all ye faithful, joyful and tri- 
umphant ! ” the mellow chimes pealed out, 
and Beth Anne, staring out over the deserted 
campus, remembered Christmas Eve with the 
waits singing outside in the moonlight and 
the scent of spruce boughs and laurel and 
holiday cheer within. 

It had been a particularly jolly Christmas, 
with Jinny’s pretty new aunt and her own 
new cousin Constance, as well as Grandmother 
and Cousin Lucia and the two boys, and the 
memory of it seemed to make the deserted 
campus look quite lonely and the bare little 
bedroom barer than ever. Beth Anne wished 
she had been courageous enough to say point- 
blank that she wanted to go to chapel. 


A ROOMMATE 


6 3 

“ Every one seemed to think Fd rather 
not,” she thought, a little wistfully. “ I sup- 
pose they meant to be kind to me.” 

If she had been able to open her trunks, it 
would have been different, but she had noth- 
ing whatever to do, so she wandered into the 
study, and after looking conscientiously at 
every article of furniture in the room, she 
went idly again to the window, and stood 
looking out. The cool, empty feeling was 
coming over her again, and she found it 
harder to bear, now that she was really in the 
much-desired Brighton itself. 

The last rays of the sinking sun fell across 
the red brick chimney-pots and touched the 
bare tree-tops with ruddy light. To Beth 
Anne there was always something melancholy 
in this last lingering touch of the sunny day. 
“ It makes me want to cry,” she had explained 
to her mother once. “ I don’t know why it 
is, I always feel sort of homesick when I look 
at the sunset on the roofs.” Her mother had 
understood, as she always did ; but David, 
who happened to be there, had said in his 
practical way, “ I guess you don’t know what 
homesickness is yet. You wait till you’re in 


64 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

some strange place all by yourself, and then 
you’ll see ! ” 

David’s words came back to her in a flash of 
memory and she turned from the window 
with a resolute air. “ I just won’t be home- 
sick at all,” she said firmly. “ It’s perfectly 
silly to mope about like this. I’ll do some- 
thing, — I don’t care what it is.” 

Her eyes fell on the heap of parcels that she 
and Jinny had dumped on the little India 
stool and then forgotten in the agitation of 
the introductions. She started eagerly for 
them, glad of the chance to occupy herself by 
carrying them into her own room. 

14 I’ll ask Jinny and Marian Lathrop to 
come in here while I open them,” she thought, 
growing more cheerful, as she gathered up the 
gay packages. 

It seemed that she had her reward at once, 
for there broke out a merry sound of voices 
and footsteps on the snow beneath her win- 
dow, and she hurried to the casement to see 
the quadrangle filled with girls hastening in 
every direction. Chapel was over and her 
loneliness went with it. 

“ I’ll be ready for Miss Tapton,” she 


A ROOMMATE 


65 

thought, with a pleasant little thrill of expec- 
tation, as she put the packages in a neat row 
on the wide window-sill in the little bedroom. 
She tugged the heavy trunk into the middle 
of the room, and when a knock came on the 
study door, she flew to answer it with such a 
bright face that Miss Tapton, coming in out of 
the chill of the winter twilight, was moved to 
unusual leniency. 

“ Show me the clothes that go to the laun- 
dry, my dear,” she said, sitting down on the 
spare little chair beside the trunk. “ I haven’t 
time to bother looking at everything, to-night. 
All I want to know is how many dormitory 
numbers you will need for them.” 

As Beth Anne unlocked the big trunk and 
took out layer after layer of dainty linen, she 
felt so much at home with her supervisor 
that she chattered away gaily, explaining 
that some of her clothes were still at home 
in the laundry. “ You see I came away so 
suddenly,” she told Miss Tapton, resting on 
her knees and looking up at her earnestly, 
“ that one set of my Sunday things were in 
the wash. Mother thought I had plenty with- 
out them, but I was terribly afraid you’d 


66 BETH HNNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


think me sort of skimpy ; so I got Mother 
to promise to send them if I needed them. 
Do you think I should send for them ? ” 

Her face was pink with excitement, and 
her clear eyes were very serious. She sat 
waiting the teacher’s reply with an intentness 
that was very captivating to the tired Miss 
Tapton, who had been through a strenuous 
afternoon with an indifferent class. 

“ I think you have quite enough,” said 
Miss Tapton, smiling down into the wide 
earnest eyes in a way that was very agree- 
able. She would have liked to reach down 
and smooth the tumbled gold curls and to 
pinch the curving cheek, but she remem- 
bered that supervisors are not engaged by the 
presidents of schools and academies for such 
purposes. So she contented herself by meas- 
uring off the required number of red-figured 
tape for the garments that needed to be 
marked for laundry purposes, and listening 
to Beth Anne’s happy flow of confidences 
with as much interest as though Beth Anne 
were grown-up and important, instead of 
being only a new student and one of the 
youngest in the school at that. 


A ROOMMATE 


67 

Marian Lathrop came in while the inspec- 
tion was at its height, and her hazel eyes 
opened rather wide as she glanced in from 
the threshold of the study. After all of 
Beth Anne's linen had been counted a sec- 
ond time and her new skates and her snow- 
shoes exhibited and her little box of books 
and all the good-bye presents shown also to 
the smiling Miss Tapton, and after the su- 
pervisor had left, Marian looked up from the 
pile of papers she was busy with and said 
quietly : 

“ Miss Tapton likes you, B. A. Burton." 

Beth Anne beamed. “ Do you think she 
does?" she asked, radiantly. n Oh, I’m so 
glad ! I hope all the teachers are as nice as 
she. Do tell me about them, please, — I’m 
perfectly crazy to hear everything about 
Brighton, right straight off." 

Marian’s calm face brightened at this ardent 
speech. She laid down her pencil and leaned 
her chin on her hand, looking at Beth Anne 
with friendly eyes. 

“ Well, there isn’t so much to tell you," she 
began, seeming to enjoy the recital. “ We get 
up at seven and have breakfast, and then 


68 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


Miss Cary reads a chapter or a verse or some- 
thing like that while we’re all at table, and 
then we go to class until eleven. At eleven 
we have an apple or plain cakes or something 
like that, and go out for recreation. Then at 
half-after we go to class again until twelve- 
thirty. Then the real luncheon and class 
and study period and chapel and recreation 
till six ” 

Bong ! 

The big bell was beginning to strike again. 

Marian broke off in the miast of her pro- 
gram. “ That’s Preparation,” she said, jump- 
ing up suddenly and making for her room. 
“ We have to change our frocks, you know, for 
dinner,” and she vanished into her own room, 
leaving Beth Anne rather at a loss whether 
she was to follow her example or not. 

Marian’s head was poked out of her door 
while Beth Anne was making up her mind 
to wear her russet corduroy in place of the 
blue serge she had on. “ You don’t have to 
bother, of course,” Marian called. “ You’re 
all right as you are,” and she disappeared 
again, like a friendly jack-in-the-box, clap- 
ping her door behind her energetically. 


A ROOMMATE 


69 

Beth Anne wandered about the study wait- 
ing for Marian and humming the tune that 
the chimes had played. She might have 
busied herself with putting away her clothes 
that were heaped on the bed and chairs as 
Miss Tapton had left them, but she was too 
eager for her new experiences to tie herself 
down to her duties just then. It was pleas- 
anter to read the titles of the books in the 
bookcase that she discovered behind the cur- 
tain beside the desk. 

“ I wonder why she keeps them covered 
up ? ” she thought, glancing at the names on 
the book backs with some curiosity. “ Oh, 
what lovely bindings ! They’re gorgeouser 
than Father’s best ones. It’s too bad to keep 
them hidden away like this.” 

But when she put the question to Marian, 
who came out dressed in another childish 
frock of much the same pattern as the one 
she had taken off, she found that her curiosity 
was not to be satisfied. 

“ I always keep them covered,” Marian said 
briefly, dropping the curtain over them again. 
“ They are my dearest possessions. I may 
tell you about them some day. I don’t know 


70 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

yet. It’s time for dinner, anyway, and we’d 
better be going down.” 

Beth Anne wondered again at the change 
in her manner, but she soon found a cheering 
solution for it, according to her comfortable 
custom. 

“ She wanted to show them to me herself, 
and it vexed her to have me poke about like 
that,” she thought, as she followed Marian 
down the long hall where other girls were 
beginning to flock toward the stairway. 

“ Did you lock your room ? ” asked Marian, 
turning to her abruptly as they were on the 
top step. 

Beth Anne’s contrite expression told her 
instantly that the key of Number 21 had not 
been used. She gave a short little laugh as 
she turned to hurry back, in spite of Beth 
Anne’s protestations. 

“ I’ll play policeman this time, and see that 
you’re bolted up tight,” she said almost gaily. 
“I’ve got to get a book to take to the library, 
anyway.” 

While she was opening Number 19, the 
study door, Beth Anne flew to Number 21, 
which she had left unlocked, and hurried in- 


A ROOMMATE 


7i 

side, slipped the bolt instead of turning the 
key, and she came out into the study before 
Marian had her book. “ I’m not going to 
bother to lock that door,” she told her. “ I’ll 
always go in through this way.” 

Marian nodded approval. “ The study’s 
half yours, you know,” she said, as they went 
out. “Everything in it is just as much for 
you as for me.” 

Beth Anne nodded and slipped her arm 
within her new companion’s as they went 
down the wide stairs. She was very glad 
that Marian had dropped her severe manner 
and was going to be friendly again. 

She gave a little skip as they hurried 
through the long arcade that separated the 
refectory from the dormitories. She could 
see girls of all ages and sizes arranging them- 
selves at the tables within the lighted room at 
the end of the passage. Life at Brighton be- 
came rose-colored once more. 

“ I do hope I’m to sit by you,” she said, 
warmly. “ I feel it in my bones that we’ll 
have a perfectly splendid time together.” 

She thought she heard her companion catch 
her breath in surprise, but they were at the 


72 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

entrance to the refectory, and one of the girls 
inside flung open the glass doors for them. 

“ Welcome to the pasture,” she said with a 
nod to Marian and a smiling glance at Beth 
Anne. “ You're almost late, M. Lathrop. 
Tappie's on pins and needles for fear our 
table will be disgraced before the new Vice- 
Pres. Did you see Dalton major anywhere?” 

Marian answered rather coldly that she had 
not been looking for Dalton major, and she led 
the way down the big room. 

Beth Anne wished that her roommate might 
have been more civil, but the brightly lighted 
dining-room was before her, and all about her 
were girls of all kinds and sizes, who im- 
mediately turned to stare at her. 

“ I wish we hadn't been late,” she thought, 
trying to thread her way after Marian with- 
out blushing and looking confused. “ I’ll 
lock my door before I go out, next time.” 

Marian stopped at a table at the very end 
of the room. 

“ Here we are,” she said briefly. “ You're 
next to me, you see.” 


CHAPTER V 


WHAT HAPPENED NEXT 

Beth Anne looked about her as she sat 
down. 

The long table was full of light and anima- 
tion, and the flower-bowl in the centre was 
filled with evergreen and rose hips, giving a 
sort of holiday touch to it. The rows of girls 
on either side of the spotless cloth looked 
bright and attractive enough to suit Beth 
Anne exactly, and she had picked out a half- 
dozen possible comrades before she had un- 
folded her dinner napkin. There was an air 
of good fellowship that corresponded with her 
ideas of what a boarding-school should be. 

She caught Jinny's eye upon her and she 
smiled back a message of entire satisfaction in 
Brighton as she was finding it. Jinny was 
opposite her at a table with the other Seniors, 
and Beth Anne had only to look across her 
own table to meet her friendly homelike 
73 


74 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

glances. It was very nice indeed, and she 
nodded and smiled again at Jinny as she took 
up her soup spoon. 

She smiled, too, at Miss Tapton at the head 
of the board. She seemed almost like an old 
friend already. The other teacher at the op- 
posite end bowed pleasantly to her as she 
glanced curiously down the table. 

“ What a lovely blue color her dress is,” she 
said to Marian in a low tone. “ It's exactly 
like the blue background in Della Robbia’s 
bambino.” 

Marian had not had an artist father, but 
she knew the bambino, for she had one 
hanging beside her table in her little bed- 
room. She liked Beth Anne all the better for 
being acquainted with her favorite bit of 
glazed terra-cotta, and her manner was very 
friendly as she answered : 

“ Miss Carter is always dressed up. She’s a 
friend of the new assistant, — -that’s how Miss 
Lee came here. She’s nice, too. She has the 
other end of our first-year hall.” 

“ You seem to like all of the teachers,” 
Beth Anne said, as she looked about the large 
room, where each table had at least two of the 


WHAT HAPPENED NEXT 75 

faculty among its rows of girls. “ You said 
that Miss Warren and Miss Skelton were nice 
and that Miss Hanford was awfully clever." 

“ Oh, well, they’re reasonable, and they 
don’t bother," Marian replied. “ I wish the 
girls were like them." 

Beth Anne wished to know if the girls 
bothered, and in what way they did not suit 
her roommate, but just then she saw Jinny 
smiling at her, and she sent back her signal of 
content in a particularly beaming smile. 

The girl who had spoken to them at the 
door was just seating herself in the vacant 
place across from Beth Anne, and she caught 
part of the message intended for Jinny. As 
she dropped into her chair she sent a flashing 
smile over the flower bowl, and nodded in a 
friendly way, that did not include Marian 
Lathrop. 

“ You beat me to it, you see," she said, and 
then settled into talk with her companions on 
either side, while Beth Anne stared across in 
pleased admiration. 

“ Who is it? " she asked Marian under her 
breath. “ Is she in our class ? " 

Marian hardly noticed the question. 


76 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

“ Name's Beulah Whitridge,” she replied 
abruptly. “ Will you please let me have 
some of that sauce ? Mary forgot me, as she 
usually does.” 

Beth Anne handed the sauce. She wished 
that her roommate were not so uncertain in 
her moods. “ She's all up-hill and down- 
dale,” she thought, in perplexity. “ I'm go- 
ing to have a pretty hard time of it, if she 
goes on like this. Everything makes her 
shut up like a clam.” 

She ate her dinner in a subdued mood, for 
she was, at heart, rather easily snubbed. She 
had been surrounded with such tender love 
and care that it was hard for her to under- 
stand the processes by which Marian had 
come to her uncertain state of temper. 
Wherever Beth Anne had gone, she had 
found ready responses to her kindly humor, 
and she did not at all comprehend how a 
plain, shy, oddly dressed girl might be misun- 
derstood and made miserable by a whole 
school-full of girls, who were careless and 
thoughtless as well as good-natured and gay. 

“I guess she doesn't like lively people,” 
she thought, as she went on with her dinner. 


IV HAT HAPPENED NEXT 77 

“ I’m perfectly sure she doesn’t care a pin for 
her and her eyes strayed to the girl opposite, 
whose smile flashed again in a most agreeable 
way. 

“ I’m going to like her tremendously,” 
thought Beth Anne, very positively, and she 
looked with pleasure at the sparkling face op- 
posite. “ She’s different from all of them.” 

The girl across the table was different in 
almost every way from the girls about her. 
She had dark thick hair with a sheen that 
caught the light like satin ; her skin was 
dark, and her vivid blue eyes were heavily 
fringed with long black lashes. They were 
rather narrow eyes, and they shone out 
strangely in her olive-skinned eager face. All 
her motions were swift and graceful, and she 
seemed to be continually rippling with laugh- 
ter at something or somebody. 

“ She looks like that Russian writer who 
was at Drake’s last year,” Beth Anne thought, 
watching her with fascinated eyes. “ I do 
hope she’s on our hall.” 

She did not like to question Marian about 
her, and so she contented herself with making 
up some very romantic histories for the girl 


78 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

opposite, who continued chatting gaily with 
her two companions and every now and then 
flashing a smile across at Beth Anne. 

“ I shouldn’t wonder if she were part 
Russian, anyway,” she thought, enjoying the 
fancy to its full. “ Perhaps her mother was a 
Russian princess or something, — she’s very 
aristocratic looking, — and her father might 
have been an Englishman, a younger son of a 
nobleman, who was in Petrograd with the 
British Embassy there and fell terribly in 
love with the countess, or princess, or what- 
ever she was.” 

This was so acceptable a picture that she 
went happily on with it, as she quietly ate 
her dinner, and she had brought the eloping 
young couple over to America safely in spite 
of the wrath of the noble English father and 
the pursuing secret agents of the Czar ; she 
had them landed in New York and after an 
exciting series of adventures in which they 
always came out triumphant, she saw them 
established in obscurity and great comfort, 
with their daughter growing up in ignorance 
of her high heritage. 

Marian too ate her dinner in silence. Just 


WHAT HAPPENED NEXT 79 

before the teachers gave the signal for the 
girls to rise and pass out of the refectory she 
looked at Beth Anne a little wistfully, but 
seeing her quite absorbed in her own thoughts 
she did not speak. 

When they rose with the others and joined 
the orderly files, Beth Anne glanced back and 
met the eyes of Beulah Whitridge again. 

“ I wish she'd come over and talk to us/' 
she thought, as they went along the arcade 
with the crowd. “ I'd just love to ask her if 
she knew Madame Demorski.” 

At the foot of the dormitory stairs, Marian 
paused. “ Miss Tapton’s going to give a talk 
on French villages before the war. Do you 
wish to go ? ” she asked, rather abruptly. 
“ She has a lot of photographs she took her- 
self. I think you’d like it.” 

Beth Anne would like it and she said so, 
much to Marian’s satisfaction. She led the 
way across the hall to the opposite door. “ It’s 
in the library, and we’d better go right in. 
We can get better seats, if we’re early,” she 
said. “ Miss Tapton’s always on time.” 

The library was already half filled with 
groups of girls perched on chairs and window- 


8o BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


sills, waiting the arrival of the lecturer. A 
low pleasant murmur of hushed voices 
hummed through the place ; the shaded 
lamps shed a glow on the many-colored bind- 
ings on the shelves and tables and a general 
sense of cozy anticipation pervaded the whole. 

Marian steered Beth Anne toward a wooden 
bench near the central table where a pile of 
large photographs and a note-book lay. 

“ We can hear and see splendidly here,” 
she said, throwing her brown cloak over one 
end of the settee to secure her place. “ I like 
to see the pictures while she’s talking about 

them. I always forget part of them by the 
time they’re handed around.” 

“It’s all the same to me,” agreed Beth 
Anne with a little laugh. “ It’s all new to 
me, you know. It’s fun just to look at the 
girls.” 

Marian smiled at her and her face was very 
pleasant when she smiled. “ You won’t mind, 

then, if I go over to the desk for a couple of 
books I need to-night ?” she said. “I’ll be 
back in a little while.” 

Beth Anne did not mind at all. In fact, 
she hardly missed her companion, so intent 


WHAT HAPPENED NEXT 81 


was she on the scene before her. She tried to 
watch for Jinny, who was not among the 
groups already gathered, but her eyes would 
stray from the entrance to the faces of the 
chatting girls near her. She was so absorbed 
in a group of Seniors on the other side of the 
table that she did not notice the girl by her 
side until a gay voice said in her ear : 

“ Won’t Miss Prunes allow you even to 
speak to me? ” 

Beth Anne started and turned to see the 
vivid face of Beulah Whitridge laughing at 
her over the furry collar of her green outing- 
coat. She had slipped down beside her so 
lightly that she had made no sound and she 
sat poised on the edge of the seat, like some 
bright bird ready to take wing. 

“ Oh ! ” cried Beth Anne, delighted. “How 
nice of you to come and talk to me ! Do 
stay ” 

“ Until the Griffiness comes back ? ” laughed 
Beulah, breaking in on Beth Anne’s eager 
welcome. “ Yes, I’ll stay that long, but you 
mustn’t expect me to loiter after that. Miss 
Prunes would put me in cold storage.” 

Beth Anne was not well versed in slang, 


82 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


for the G. S. C. were rather free from that 
failing, and usually could manage to express 
themselves without it. But she found no 
fault with her new acquaintance. Indeed, 
everything about her was attractive. Seen 
nearer, she was still more brilliant and gay 
and graceful, and Beth Anne fell more under 
her spell every time she looked at her. 

She was rather uncomfortable, however. 
“ Do you mean that Marian Lathrop doesn’t 
wish me to know you ? ” she asked with a 
directness that stopped Beulah Whitridge's 
laughter for a minute. “ Why shouldn't she 
want me to know you ? ” 

Her heart sank as she saw the smile fade, 
but she was determined to be loyal to her 
new roommate, even though it cost her some 
pangs. She had been taught to love beauty 
as well as truth and loyalty and the girl 
beside her was very charming, while poor 
Marian Lathrop was undoubtedly quite plain. 
“But she’s my roommate," thought Beth 
Anne, “ and I've got to stand up for her." 

The little shadow passed as quickly as it 
had come upon the pretty face. Beulah flung 
off her green coat and settled herself on the 


WHAT HAPPENED NEXT 83 

bench, as though she had decided the matter. 
“ Don’t bother about Marian Lathrop,” she 
said in the most friendly tone. “ Of course, 
you’re bound to pretend to like her. You 
can’t help being put in with a stupid. We’re 
all awfully sorry for you.” 

“ But what’s the matter with her ? ” per- 
sisted Beth Anne. “ Virginia Randolph said 
she was a good student, and Miss Lee told 
Father she was reliable and upright, and 
Miss Tapton spoke very nicely to her when 
she was inspecting my things, and ” 

“ Oh, Tappie ! She doesn’t count,” returned 
Beulah with easy contempt. “ Teachers al- 
ways like the frumps, you know. Virginia 
Randolph doesn’t really know a thing about 
her, and Miss Lee hasn’t been here a week. 
You can’t tell anything from all that gabble. 
The girls are the ones who know. You ask 
any one what they think of Marian Lathrop, 
and see what they say.” 

Beth Anne felt there must be some truth 
in this. She remembered Jinny’s constrained 
manner when she had spoken of Marian, and 
when she looked again at Beulah’s inviting 
eyes, she gave up, with a little sigh at the 


84 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

perplexities of life in this strange land of 
boarding-school. 

“ I’m sorry she isn't popular, though," she 
said impulsively. “ It must be dreadful not 
to have people like you." 

The other laughed again. “ I bet you don’t 
have any trouble that way," she said with a 
look of admiration that made Beth Anne’s 
head at least an inch taller. “ You have a 
good time wherever you go, or I’m entirely 
mistaken. But don’t let’s waste time on 
Miss Prunes. Tell me about yourself. Your 
father’s the painter Burton, isn’t he ? Have 
you any sisters or brothers ? What sort of a 
place is Centerville? Where did you go to 
school?" 

Beth Anne was quite ready to turn her 
history inside out for this fascinating person, 
but she had no sooner started on an account 
of Miss Martha’s classrooms than Beulah in- 
terrupted her with a funny story of a girl 
named Martha, and from that she went on to 
a number of diverting anecdotes about the 
various girls in her own class. She kept Beth 
Anne very much entertained until the en- 
trance of Miss Tapton put an end to the 


WHAT HAPPENED NEXT 85 

talking, and a decorous silence took the place 
of the low sociable hum. 

The lecture was very interesting, and Beth 
Anne lost herself in the beauties of the little 
French villages with their picturesque thatches 
and bits of casement windows. Her father's 
photographs and sketches had made many of 
them seem like old friends, and when Miss 
Tapton had ended she was among the eager 
group that pressed about the table for an- 
other view of the pictures. It was only when 
Beulah Whitridge left her at the edge of the 
group that she remembered Marian Lathrop. 

“ Oh, dear," she thought with some con- 
cern. “ 1 forgot all about her. I suppose she 
wouldn't come back when she saw me talking 
to Beulah Whitridge. I wish she weren't so 
very queer." 

She remembered that she had missed Jinny, 
too. “And it's my very first day here," she 
said to herself rather dismally. “ I'm getting 
all mixed up already. But there are so many 
new things, and every one seems to be some 
place else most of the time." 

Her interest in the photographs died sud- 
denly, and she turned away in search of 


86 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


Marian. “ I do wish she didn’t dislike Beulah 
Whitridge,” she thought as she went back to 
the bench, where she hoped to find at least 
the long brown cloak. “ It’s pretty hard to be 
friends with everybody, if they’re going to act 
like that.” 

The brown cloak was gone. There was no 
sign of Marian, nor could she see Jinny any- 
where. She went slowly out of the library, 
not noticing the friendly glances of some of 
her own class who had been at the next table 
in the refectory. 

She went up to her own room, hoping that 
Marian had gone on ahead of her, but when 
she came to the study door, she found it 
locked. Her outer bedroom door, of course, 
was bolted from the inside and her key was 
of no use. 

“ I wish I hadn’t left the study key inside 
there on the desk,” she thought, staring up at 
the black numbers on the deep panels. “ I’ll 
take it with me every time after this.” 

It was surprising how familiar Number 19 
looked to her. It was a very short time since 
she had first seen it, and yet she felt very 
desolate when she found she could not get in. 


WHAT HAPPENED NEXT 87 

44 Locked out ? ” asked a voice behind her, 
and this time she recognized it. 

“ I forgot my key,” she explained. 44 And 
there isn’t any light in Jinny’s room, either. 
I don’t know where every one is.” 

Beulah Whitridge threw open the door 
exactly opposite. “Come in out of the rain,” 
she offered, with gay hospitality. 44 The 
Griffiness is probably hobnobbing with the 
faculty. Virginia Randolph will be up in a 
minute. She’s helping Dalton major with 
her Latin, — a previous engagement, I be- 
lieve.” 

Beth Anne felt a tiny bit hurt that she had 
not been told of this engagement with the 
little Dalton girl, and she went into the warm, 
well-furnished room with less reluctance than 
she might have shown. 

44 How sweet ! ” she exclaimed as she looked 
about. 44 Why, it’s perfectly lovely. What a 
dear little piano, and what a ducky samovar ! 
It’s quite as splendid as Father’s studio set, 
and he got his in Russia.” 

She was just about to put her question as 
to Madame Demorski, which she had forgotten 
while in the library, when a step in the hall- 


88 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


way made her turn. Jinny was hurrying 
toward Number 19. 

“ Here I am/’ cried Beth Anne, eagerly. 
“ I’m locked out, you see, and had to wait for 
Marian.” 

Jinny nodded pleasantly to Beulah, who 
urged her to come in. “ No, thank you,” she 
said, briskly. “ I’ve tons of studying to do 
yet. I’ve been behindhand all day. I’m go- 
ing to take Beth Anne over to my den till 
Marian comes. Good-night,” and she was off, 
not even looking back to see if Beth Anne 
were following her. 

As Jinny put the key in her lock, Beth 
Anne looked curiously at her. She knew 
Jinny’s moods very well, and she felt that 
something was amiss. When they were in 
the room, and the door shut behind them, she 
found out what it was. 

“ Beth dear, I wish you wouldn’t chum up 
with any girls till you know them better,” 
Jinny said with some reluctance. “ You may 
find out that they’re not just like you think 
they are.” 

“ Do you mean Beulah Whitridge ? ” asked 
Beth Anne, rather disturbed by Jinny’s speech. 


WHAT HAPPENED NEXT 89 

She knew that the years spent in Carter Street 
had made Jinny a better judge of things than 
she, and yet she was not willing to give up 
her agreeable new acquaintance too readily. 

“ I wasn't chumming up with her, partic- 
ularly," she said. “ I was locked out, and her 
room was near by—” 

Bong ! Bong! The bell was striking again. 

“ Oh, dear, there's the last period bell, and 
I haven't even looked at my French composi- 
tion for to-morrow ! " cried Jinny in dismay. 
“ And I have two whole pages of Latin prose 
and a perfect sheaf of problems to do yet.” 

Beth Anne had dropped into the chair by 
the door, but she got up again. 

Her mouth was drooping, and she looked 
very desolate. Jinny, scrambling the papers 
about on her desk in search of her note-books, 
did not notice her dejected aspect. 

“ Just make yourself comfortable, will 
you?” she said, absently. "I'll have to peg 
away, but you won't mind. There's a book 
on the table,” and she went on with her hasty 
search. 

“ I think I'll go over to my room,” Beth 
Anne told her in as steady a voice as she could 


9 o BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

muster. “ Marian must be in now, and I'd 
better be putting my things away.” 

Jinny kissed her absently, and then pulled 
her back to kiss her again. She looked at 
her more closely, and Beth Anne brightened 
instantly. All that she wanted was a little 
love and attention. 

“ ril see you to your door, anyway,” said 
Jinny, satisfied with her scrutiny that all was 
well with Beth Anne. “ M. Lathrop may be 
loitering still.” 

They found Marian in the study, already 
hard at work, and she looked up with relief 
when she saw who it was with Beth Anne. “ I 
was looking for you all over the dormitory,” 
she told her, after the door had closed on 
Jinny. “ They told me you were with Beulah 
Whitridge.” 

At that Beth Anne's desolate feeling came 
back. Marian's voice was not unkind but 
merely remote, and when Jinny left, as she 
did immediately, Beth Anne murmured some- 
thing about putting her things to rights, and 
with a quiet good-night from Marian, she 
went into her room and softly shut the door 
behind her. 


WHAT HAPPENED NEXT 91 

She turned off the light, which some one 
had turned on for her, and she sat down by 
the window, feeling very lonely and forlorn. 
The campus was glistening in the moonlight 
and the windows across the quadrangle showed 
warm squares of golden lamplight among the 
shadows of the eastern wall. Stars sparkled 
in the deep blue overhead, and over the far 
line of the distant hills rose the evening star. 
It shone with pulsating radiance, even in that 
moonlit sky. 

Beth Anne remembered last night, — was it 
only last night? — that she and her mother 
had seen the same star shining through her 
bedroom window. She stared at it now 
through the blur of tears that began to rise, 
and she thought of the delightful hopes 
and expectations that had filled her mind. 

“ It's rather different from what I thought 
it would be,” she said, dolefully. “ I've 
hardly seen Jinny, and as for Marian Lath- 
rop, I don't believe she likes me at all.” 

She felt so desolate and forsaken that she 
leaned her head down on the window-sill to 
shut out the moonlight and the quivering 
lance of starlight. Her forehead touched the 


92 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

pile of good-bye packages lying there forgot- 
ten, and she started up with a little gasp. 

“ How could I forget them ? Oh, how could 
I?” she said half aloud. “I’ll turn on the 
light and get Marian. She was really awfully 
nice when I came up to-night.” 

But when she switched on the light and saw 
her reddened eyelids, she snapped it off again 
in a jiffy. “ I just can’t let anybody see that 
I’ve been making a baby of myself,” she said. 
“ I’ll wait till to-morrow.” 

She undressed in the gleam of the moon- 
light and said her prayers quickly, for she felt 
very, very lonely. The red diary lay undis- 
turbed and Carline’s pretty box had not been 
opened. The first day at boarding-school was 
at an end, and Beth Anne was clambering into 
bed, with the big tears dropping down her 
cheeks. 

She pulled the covers up about her ears so 
that Marian might not hear her sobbing. 

“ I wish I had never, never come to 
Brighton,” she said to herself. And after an- 
other big sob she added, vehemently : 

“ I just hate it 1 ” 


CHAPTER VI 


ANOTHER NEW DAY 

Tap, tap, tap I 

Some one was knocking on Beth Anne's 
door. 

She roiled over, rubbing her eyes, and she 
called gaily, “ All right, Carline ! I'm awake. 
I'm awake ! " 

Then in a twinkling she really was awake, 
and she remembered where she was. The sun 
was shining brightly in at the window where 
the untouched good-bye presents lay, and the 
deep tones of the big bell hummed on the 
frosty air outside. 

“ Is that you, Marian ? " she asked, sitting 
up with a bounce. “ Is it time to get up ? 
Come on in and tell me what's happening 
now." 

Marian stood in the doorway, fully dressed. 
She was smiling, and Beth Anne wondered 
how she could have thought her so plain or 
unfriendly. “ Breakfast will be happening 
93 


94 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

in about ten minutes/' she answered. “ 1 
thought you were up. You can make it, 
though, if you hurry. The tub's filled and 
everything's ready." 

“ I'll simply fly l " cried Beth Anne, hop- 
ping out of bed and grabbing up her pink 
bathrobe. “I can scrub in a jiffy, if I have to." 

She remembered to call through the key- 
hole when she was almost through, “ But you 
mustn't be late, too. Don’t wait for me ! I’ll 
come as soon as I can." 

She did not catch Marian's reply, and when 
she burst out of the bathroom to fly to 
dress, there was Marian sitting quietly at the 
desk, writing in her thick note-book, as 
though she had all the time in the world to 
spare. 

“ She's going to wait for me," thought 
Beth Anne as she sped with her dressing. 
“ She’s awfulty kind to me, after all." 

She slipped into her clothes, brushed her 
curls furiously, tied her ribbon with a jerk, 
and was ready in no time. It was easy for 
her to hurry if the somebody who was wait- 
ing for her was friendly and patient. The 
buttons all went into their proper places and 


ANOTHER NEW DAY 95 

the strings never knotted. It was quite dif- 
ferent when she felt she was awaited impa- 
tiently. Then everything went wrong and 
had to be done twice, and she was perfectly 
miserable into the bargain. 

“ I’m ready," she announced, coming into 
the study with such a radiant face that 
Marian looked at her with a smile. 

“ You made it in just one-half minute less 
than I thought you could/' she said, glancing 
at the clock. “ Better get your key this time, 
though. We won't be apt to be together long. 
If you qualify for different classes, you'll have 
different hours, you know." 

Beth Anne made a little face. “ I guess 
I'll be far below you," she said with simple 
candor. “ Jinny says you're very clever.” 

Marian looked at her sharply, and then 
her face softened. “ Miss Randolph is very 
pretty," she remarked, with a sort of hunger 
in her voice that Beth Anne did not notice. 
“ I have always thought her the nicest 
girl in the school." 

Beth Anne giggled at the imposing name. 
“ 1 Miss Randolph ' sounds funny to me," she 
explained hastily. “ We all call each other by 


96 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

our own names, you know, and Miss sounds 
so grown-up and starchy. Will they call me 
Miss Burton ? I know I'll laugh if they do.” 

“ We are supposed to speak only to the 
teachers and older girls that way,” replied 
Marian, a little more stiffly. “ I shall call 
you Beth Anne if you wish me to. The rest 
of them I call Miss. I don’t know them very 
well.” 

Beth Anne opened her eyes wide in sur- 
prise. “ Not know them well?” she echoed. 
“ Why, you’ve been here since November, 
haven’t you ? ” 

Marian’s stiffness grew into vexation. She 
held her head up and hurried along the hall 
to the arcade. “ Yes, I have been here since 
the last week in November, but I know none 
of the girls at all well,” and as if to emphasize 
her words she nodded coldly to a couple of 
passing girls. “ How do you do, Miss Hall ? ” 
she said in a perfectly colorless voice. “ Good- 
morning, Miss Sharp.” 

Beth Anne saw that she had made a 
blunder, but she said no more. She followed 
Marian into the sunny refectory where their 
places were the only empty ones at the table 


ANOTHER NEW DAY 


97 

presided over by Miss Tapton and the attract- 
ive Miss Carter. 

Breakfast was a gayer meal for Beth Anne 
than dinner had been, for she felt more at 
home than she had been on the previous 
night. The girls near her smiled and chatted 
with her and Marian, this time, came in for 
a share of the general good-will. When 
Beulah Whitridge introduced her two neigh- 
bors to Beth Anne she included Marian in all 
her gay nonsense. Beth Anne was delighted 
at the friendliness of them all. 

“ What a lot of nice girls they are,” she 
said to Marian as they went toward the reci- 
tation hall after Miss Lee had read the morn- 
ing chapter to them in the refectory. “ I be- 
lieve I'm going to like them all.” 

“ I shouldn't wonder,” returned Marian, 
and again that wistful note was in her voice. 

Beth Anne heard it this time, and she 
turned eagerly to lay a hand on her room- 
mate's arm. “ But I shan't like them if 
they're unkind to you,” she said earnestly. 
“ You've got to be friends with them, too. 
It's time you were, you know.” 

Marian's face flushed, and she looked at 


98 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

Beth Anne with her hazel eyes shining and 
her lips tense. “ I don't care a snap about 
the others," she replied a little sharply. “ I’d 
rather be friends with you than with the 
whole school, — except Miss Randolph." 

Beth Anne laughed comfortably, as she 
skipped on beside her. “ Oh, you can’t help 
knowing me," she answered lightly. “ I’m 
your roommate, and you’ve just got to be 
friends with me." 

She thought Marian looked at her oddly 
but, as they were on the threshold of the 
classroom where Beth Anne was to be put to 
work, there was nothing more said on the 
subject, though Beth Anne thought of the 
strange expression on Marian’s face many 
times that morning. 

She met the teacher of the hour, and was 
put to work on short notice. It was all less 
formidable than she had supposed. The class- 
rooms of such schools are alike everywhere 
and she might have been at home in Miss 
Martha’s if it had not been for the rows of 
strange faces about her. 

“ It’s not very hard, after all," she thought, 
as the periods came and went and she found 


ANOTHER NEW DAY 


99 

herself getting along swimmingly in all the 
studies that were offered her. She did not 
come off so triumphantly in everything as she 
expected, however, for at recreation time she 
had waggled her curls very confidently when 
Marian told her that the next period would 
be devoted to themes in composition. 

14 1 shan’t have much trouble with that,” 
she said, putting it very mildly. “ I’m used 
to writing, and I like it tremendously.” 

When the teacher announced that the sub- 
ject of the theme was to be, “ On Giving 
Promises,” she felt as though it had been 
especially selected for her benefit. 

“ I guess I know a lot about that,” she 
thought contentedly, dipping her pen into 
the ink and shaking off the drops in a little 
shower. “ I’ve given plenty of them myself 
this very week.” 

And she fell to thinking of the vows she 
had made, first to the G. S. C. to send her 
contribution to the refreshment fund, and then 
to write a weekly letter that should make them 
all yearn for the gaieties of boarding-school. 
She remembered that she had promised to 
write to Carline, too, and that she had offered 


ioo BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

to send Mrs. Drake a prospectus of Brighton 
for a young niece who was thinking of go- 
ing to school. Her various promises to her 
mother, as to taking care of herself and keep- 
ing the rules, came back to her as she wrote 
the heading on the smooth white page. 

“ I'll have to write them all down in my 
diary to-night,” she thought with a little 
laugh. “ I’m beginning to forget some of 
them already.” 

That started her off, and she wrote rapidly 
for a while. “ Promises are easily given, par- 
ticularly when one is happy, or when one is 
feeling noble. It is not hard, either, to prom- 
ise to be good when one has just been punished 
but it is very different when one is playing 
hide-and-seek in the back garden. If all the 
promises in the world were kept, a great 
many splendid and strange and funny things 
would happen.” She paused for a while here, 
nibbling her pen and thinking of some of the 
remarkable things that might take place. 

She stopped so long that Marian, who was 
watching her from the other side of the aisle, 
became very uneasy and was on the point of 
reaching over to touch her, but Beth Anne 


ANOTHER NEW DAT ioi 


came out of her dream in time and went on 
with her scribbling. 

Her head was wagging again, for she had a 
glorious thought that she meant to put in at 
the very end, and she started off smoothly, 
“It is well not to promise too easily, but 
sometimes if one does promise things that are 
difficult, one tries to do them, and so more 
good is done than if they had not prom- 
ised ” 

The monitor was coming around collecting 
the papers before she could get any further 
than this, and she had to hand in her un- 
finished theme, without the splendid thought 
that was to make it so superior to all others. 
It was a great disappointment. 

She went out to luncheon with a lowered 
crest. She remembered how confident she 
had been once before, and how she had lost 
the play by being too sure of success. She 
did not look at Marian when later at the end 
of the afternoon session the themes which 
Miss Carter considered the best were read out 
in class. She hoped that Marian would not 
notice that hers was not among the honored 
ones. 


io2 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


“ I'll show her I can do something good, 
though/’ she thought as she went up to the 
dormitory for Preparation. “ I’ll get Bess to 
send me 1 The Little Brown Princess/ and 
then shell see that I wasn’t just bragging for 
nothing.” 

She found that while she admired Beulah 
Whitridge more every time she saw her, she 
was also very eager for Marian’s good opinion. 
She told her about The Little Brown Princess, 
and how her father had helped her make it 
into a successful play, and Marian listened 
gravely while she watched Beth Anne pack- 
ing away her pretty clothes and bringing out 
her dainty pink treasures. 

They had a pleasant quarter of an hour 
together while the precious photographs were 
tacked up in the study and the few books 
that Beth Anne had been simply obliged to 
bring along were stowed on a convenient 
shelf. 

“ I hope you don’t despise me for being so 
queer yesterday,” said Marian abruptly, paus- 
ing with the well-rubbed “ Treasure Island ” in 
her hand. “ I heard you at the door, you 
know.” 


ANOTHER NEW DAY 103 

Beth Anne looked distressed. She felt that 
Marian was going to apologize, and it always 
made her uncomfortable to have people apol- 
ogize to her. 

“ Oh, I didn’t think much about it/' she 
replied truthfully. “ It was your own room, 
and you had the right to keep quiet if you 
wanted to. There’s the bell, and I haven’t 
touched my hair. My hands are pot-black, 
too. Goodness-gracious, I’ll be late for 
sure ! ” 

She danced away leaving Marian staring 
after her with an amazed expression on her 
face. It was plain that she was not used to 
having her faults so lightly dismissed. 

There was a period of absolute silence as 
Beth Anne rushed about in her bedroom, 
pulling her russet corduroy out of the closet, 
flinging off her blue serge and distractedly 
tearing at her blue hair ribbon, all at the 
same time. 

“ Aren’t you going to change ? ” she called, 
tugging breathlessly at the stubborn ribbon. 
“ You’ll be fearfully late if you don’t hop ! ” 

Marian appeared in the doorway for one 
brief second. 


104 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

“ You’re not a bit like the last one,” she 
said with great emphasis. “ You’re nice 
enough even for Virginia Randolph ! ” 

And then she vanished into her own room, 
where she could be heard scurrying about 
with unusual speed. 

“ Whew ! She’s livelier than I thought,” 
gurgled Beth Anne to herself, flinging off the 
blue and snatching up a russet hair-tie. “ I 
guess I’m going to get along pretty well, after 
all.” 

She did not change her mind when dinner 
was over and study period at hand, and 
Marian, in a lounging robe that Beulah 
Whitridge had described as “ perfectly 
ghastly,” was in the little study with Beth 
Anne and Jinny who had been given per- 
mission to spend the rest of the evening with 
them. 

Beth Anne was opening the good-bye pres- 
ents at last, and the desk was covered with 
the wrappings and ribbons that had tied them. 

Carline’s box had been opened first and had 
been found to be filled with delicious little 
brown lumpy cakes that tasted like nut-cakes, 
but were made of oatmeal, and therefore, as 


ANOTHER NEW DAT 105 

Carline had said, perfectly wholesome and 
harmless. Ben’s offering had proved to be 
chocolate caramels of a brand that was highly 
esteemed by the G. S. C., and Francie’s orna- 
mental round box had yielded enough choco- 
late fudge for the whole first-year hall. 

Beth Anne, prompted by her usual gener- 
osity, had borrowed one of the gay plates from 
under the heaped papers, and filled it with 
the delectable cakes and an ample portion of 
the caramels and fudge and had carried it to 
Miss Tapton’s door, where she was knocking 
when Beulah Whitridge passed. 

Beulah had glanced at the plate and said 
lightly, “ Ah, ha, making offerings to the 
idols, I see,” and Beth Anne had giggled, for 
there had been no ill humor in the tone, and 
when she had handed in her plate with a 
pleasant little flutter of spirits and had been 
gratified by Miss Tapton’s way of receiving 
the simple gift, she had run back to the study 
and got out another gay plate and filled it 
with a less generous portion of cakes and a 
moderate amount of Francie’s fudge, and she 
had skipped lightly across the hall to hand it 
in at Beulah's door. 


io6 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


When she came back to the study she half 
expected to be scolded by Jinny or to find 
Marian cold and scornful, but to her surprise 
they were both just as pleasant as when she 
had left them, and when she took yet another 
plate to fill for the Dalton major and minor 
next door, Marian took the crustiest little cake 
from her own plate and laid it on the pile. 

“ I hadn’t touched it, and Dalton minor 
likes crusty ones,” she said as Beth Anne hur- 
ried out. 

Beth Anne was thinking rather seriously 
when she handed in her third offering, and 
she hardly heard the enthusiastic thanks of 
the twins. “ Marian isn’t so crusty herself as 
she makes out,” she was thinking. 

As she went slowly back to Number 19 a 
burst of gay laughter floated out over the 
transom of the room opposite. 

“ I wish they would all be friends,” she 
thought. 11 1 don’t see why they can’t. 
Perhaps I can help them to understand each 
other better. I’m going to try it, anyway,” 
she said to herself, as she went in. “ I think 
it’s a perfectly splendid idea ! ” 


CHAPTER VII 


HOPES AND PLANS 

“ Well, how do you like boarding-school 
now ? ” asked Jinny, as she pulled a remark- 
ably long thread through the hole she was 
darning. 

They were in Beth Anne's little bedroom, 
and Jinny had her weekly darning huddled 
in her lap while she divided her attention be- 
tween the stocking in her hand and the win- 
dow through which she could see all that 
went on outside. 

At Brighton it was part of the program to 
teach the girls to grow into neat, dainty, capa- 
ble women as well as good scholars, and every 
girl had to attend to her own stockings and 
buttons, although the other mending was 
taken care of by the matron of each dormitory. 
Mrs. Vare, who was good nature itself in 
other matters, was most strict in this particu- 
lar, and woe to the girl whose stocking came 
107 


io8 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


gaping to the laundry or whose clothes lacked 
hooks or buttons. Mrs. Vare would be down 
upon her with short notice, tapping at her 
door with the metal edge of the laundry list 
and asking to be told why such and such a 
garment was not in repair. She put a black 
cross beside each garment that needed stitches 
and the list went in to make up the general 
average. 

So Jinny sat by the window, drawing the 
long thread through her brown stocking and 
chattering to Beth Anne, who was trying to 
write her note to her old nurse, and not mak- 
ing out very well because she would stop 
every other word or so to run to the window, 
or answer some remark that Jinny made. 

She laid down her pen for the twentieth 
time, and leaned her chin in her hand, staring 
absently at the pattern of the window curtain 
as she said thoughtfully : 

“ We-e-11, I like it pretty well. Of course, 
it's not like home, and it’s different from what 
I expected it to be, but then, I’ve been here 
only five days. I hardly know the girls yet.” 

Jinny glanced at her absorbed face, and a 
little pucker came into her smooth brow. 


HOPES AND PLANS 109 

“ Do you know, Beth Anne, you’re ever so dif- 
ferent here at Brighton from what you are at 
home,” she said with some hesitation. “ At 
home you’re ready to be friends in a minute, 
but here you seem so — well, I don’t know how 
to make you understand. You’re pleasant 
and you laugh and all that, but you aren’t 
chummy with any one ” 

Beth Anne broke in with an amused sniff. 
Her thoughtful mood had gone and her eyes 
were dancing. “That’s just like it!” she 
cried, pointing a finger at Jinny. “ You warn 
me about jumping into friendships that I 
might get sick of, and then the next minute 
you’re scolding me for holding off and being 
stiff and starchy. I’ve been trying with all 
my might and main to do just exactly as you 
told me, and I’ve hardly spoken to Beulah 
Whitridge, or Mary Sharp, or Dorothy Mat- 
tern, or any one, except the teachers 
and — — ” 

Jinny caught the accusing finger and pulled 
Beth Anne over beside her. “ I didn’t mean 
you need shut up like a perfect clam,” she 
laughed. “ I was speaking of the Stylish Set, 
as we call them, — Beulah Whitridge and her 


I IO BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


chums. I didn’t want you to snub the rest 
of them and shut yourself up with Marian 
Lathrop and me every spare moment you 
have had.” 

Beth Anne sat up on her heels and spoke 
impressively, nodding her head at every 
point she made. “ I tell you, Miss Virginia 
Randolph, that you are getting to be a very 
uncharitable and un-Chrissen-like heathener, 
as Carline says,” she declared. “ You tell me 
to treat all the girls alike till I find out what 
they really-for-truly are, and you want me 
to act like a perfectly sickening niminy- 
piminy ’fraid-cat. Well, I’ve tried to do as 
you told me, — though that doesn’t suit you 
either, — and I’ve been stiff and prim and I’ve 
had a stupid time of it. You’ve made a mis- 
take for once, Jinny-pinny, and you might as 
well know it.” 

“ I don’t see that I’ve made a mistake, and 
I didn’t mean to be uncharitable,” returned 
Jinny, with the pucker coming again. “ I 
didn’t think you’d turn into a regular 
icicle 

“ That’s just it,” cried Beth Anne earnestly. 
“ You wanted me to pick and choose, — to be 


HOPES AND PLANS 


1 1 1 


sweet as sugar to one and a regular pickle 
to another. Isn’t that being uncharitable? 
Isn’t that being a horrid snob? The Bible 
says we should love every one, and Mother 
says we can always find good in even the 
worst person.” She was so carried away now 
by her own words that she became very much 
moved and her voice dropped to a pleading 
tone. “ Let’s make a bargain, Jinny dear. 
Let’s try to see the good in every one. I’ll 
promise to do my part if you will. Let’s— — ” 

Jinny interrupted her eagerly. She was 
always quick to respond to Beth Anne’s 
moods and she felt a sting of reproach as to 
her own conduct. “ I’ve been pretty hard on 
Beulah Whitridge when I don’t really know 
her any better than I did Marian Lathrop,” 
she admitted generously. “I may be all at 
sea with her, as I was with Marian. Perhaps 
you can see better than I, Babs, for I’m an 
obstinate pig when I take a fancy. I’ve 
never been drawn to Beulah, but I may be 
wrong about her. I’ll try to find her good 
side, though ” 

Beth Anne flung herself upon her, choking 
the rest of her speech. “ Oh, Jinny dearest, 


1 12 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


I knew you would be noble and magnani- 
mous and magniloquent when you stopped to 
think ! ” she cried in a burst of delight. 
“ Let's all be friends, and show the other girls 
how lovely it is to be kind and good and for- 
giving ! ” 

Jinny agreed, though she was not so en- 
thusiastic as Beth Anne. She pulled herself 
slowly from Beth Anne’s embrace and picked 
up her darning needle again. “ It’s a pretty 
stiff task, — to try to like every one,” she said 
thoughtfully. “ I’m afraid I’m too set in my 
ways to learn how all at once,” and she sighed 
slightly, as she drew the thread. 

Beth Anne had carried her first point and 
she was beaming. She had not planned this 
victory and so it was doubly sweet to her. 

“ Oh, don’t let’s be dumpy about it,” she 
said breezily. “ It’s half the battle to be 
jolly. Let’s begin right away. I’ll ask the 
Twins in to-night and we’ll have some of the 
girls each night till we’ve gone the rounds. 
That will be doing the right thing, won’t it? ” 

Jinny considered and could find no flaw, 
although she seemed slightly uneasy. “ I 
suppose it’s all right,” she agreed. “ We’re 


HOPES AND PLANS 


IJ 3 

allowed to have any one for an hour, and I 
guess Marian won't mind. She can go to my 
room or the library if she does." 

“ Oh, that wouldn't do at all," cried Beth 
Anne, disturbed at this short-sightedness on 
Jinny's part. “ That's part of the scheme. 
Marian must be in it, too." 

Jinny looked doubtful. “ Perhaps we'd 
best not tell her about it just right off," she 
said slowly. “ She's queer about seeing peo- 
ple, you know." 

Beth Anne remembered some of her room- 
mate's speeches, and she had to agree. “ But 
we'll tell her pretty soon," she declared. 
“ There wouldn't be half the good in it if she 
didn’t know she was trying to be friendly." 

Jinny made no reply, and Beth Anne con- 
sidered the matter closed. 

She got up and went back to her task again, 
and in the glow of her spirits she lengthened 
Carline's note into a long letter and finished 
it with the promise of another before very 
long. Then she got out her large tablet. 

“ I've got to get that letter off to the Club 
in the next mail, or it'll be too late," she said 
with a little sigh. “ I haven't very much to 


1 1 4 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

tell them, though. Nothing very exciting has 
happened yet.” 

Jinny looked up from her work with a 
laugh. “ Did you expect exciting things to 
happen here ? ” she asked. “ I thought you 
knew Brighton better than that. Miss Cary 
would be horrified if she heard you. She 
tells us all that j J oise is the most beautiful 
thing in the world, — half the girls don't 
know what she's talking about.” 

Beth Anne was scratching her pen up and 
down the glass inkstand and making funny 
little squeaky noises with it and she did not 
pay much attention. “ Not a thing has hap- 
pened worth writing about,” she repeated. 
“ I haven't done anything that I haven't 
been doing at Miss Martha's every day this 
term. I haven't been to a spread or a secret 
meeting or ” 

“ Oh, that reminds me,” said Jinny hastily. 
“ I saw Alice Sharp in lecture to-day, and she 
was talking about the play we Juniors are to 
give to the Seniors next month. She said 
the committee hadn't chosen any play yet, 
and I asked whether they wouldn't take ‘ The 
Little Brown Princess.’ It's been done be- 


HOPES AND PLANS 115 

fore, so we’d know how to do it, and it’s new, 
too ” 

“ Oh, Jinny-pinny, how gorgeous,” cried 
Beth Anne, unable to hear the last words. 
“ How sweet of you to remember it. But of 
course,” she hastened to add, “ they wouldn’t 
want my little play.” 

“Indeed they would, too,” replied Jinny 
with spirit. “ A play that was good enough 
for Mr. and Mrs. Burton and for all their 
friends is good enough for any one. Alice 
told me to ask you to let them have a copy 
to read over. There’s to be a meeting to- 
morrow after chapel and they’ll decide then. 
Though, of course, they’ll only be too glad 
to get it,” she added. “ It’s a big help to 
have a play that you know has been a suc- 
cess.” 

Beth Anne was in a perfect transport. 
“ How splendid ! ” she cried, joyfully. “ How 
dear of you to tell them about it ! But you 
always are perfectly sweet to me, Jinny.” 

“ Don’t thank me too much,” replied Jinny, 
beginning to roll up her work. “ I really 
wouldn’t have thought of it, if it hadn’t been 
for Marian. She told me that you were go- 


1 16 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


ing to let her read one of your plays, and she 
seemed awfully set up over it. She’s ever so 
much more of a talker than I used to think 
she could be. Well, I must go, Babs. Re- 
member to send for your play right off. You 
can have it here if you ask them to tell them 
to put a special on it. They’ll rush it through 
from Carbon, instead of letting it go on to 
Pittston with the regular mail.” 

Beth Anne promised readily enough, and 
Jinny rose to go. At the door she paused. 

“ Oh, and Mary Hall was asking if you’d 
like to be on the first-year team for the Gym 
Sports on Washington’s Birthday,” she said 
carelessly. “ I told her to ask you about it. 
It’s going to be pretty strenuous, but all the 
girls are crazy to be in it.” 

Beth Anne looked perplexed. “ I’d just 
love to,” she answered wistfully. “ But I 
promised Mother not to go into any regular 
gym exhibits. She’s so afraid I’ll overdo. 
She told me that she’d never got over the 
strain of her last gym exhibit at college, and 
she says she doesn’t want me to be handi- 
capped all my life, — just to show off before 
people. Though I’d love to go in the Sports,” 


HOPES AND PLANS 


117 

she added, " and I think it’s sweet of them to 
ask me.” 

She wished that Jinny would protest against 
her refusal, that she would suggest writing 
to urge permission for just this one time : but 
Jinny did no such thing. She nodded as she 
turned to go 

“ I guess your mother is right,” she said. 
“ Dr. Brand told Mary to be careful with the 
pole-vault, and Alice Sharp can’t go in the 
440-dash because he says her heart is weak. 
He says he got a leaking heart himself in 
high jumps at college, and he doesn’t believe 
in letting girls train unless they’re going to 
be professional athletes. Alice told him she’d 
keep on with it, even if she had to be an 
acrobat in a circus. She’s perfectly crazy 
over gym work.” 

Beth Anne giggled at the picture of the 
dainty Alice Sharp among the sawdust of a 
three-ringed circus, but she felt very much 
cheered by Dr. Brand’s verdict. 

“ Mother’s always right,” she said, with a 
wag of her bright curls. “ I’ll tell Miss Sharp 
that I can’t go in the Sports, though I’d 
dearly, dearly love to ! Don’t forget to 


n8 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


come in to-night, Jinny. Well have a fire 
in the grate and we’ll toast some marsh- 
mallows. I found a whole box of them in 
the bottom of my handy-bag to-day. Mother 
must have put them in to surprise me.” 

Jinny promised and went off to her quarter 
of an hour with Dalton major whose Latin 
was a thorn in the flesh, and Beth Anne, left 
alone, went to her letter with a relish. 

“ I’ve plenty to tell them now,” she 
thought, happily. “ It’s a perfectly wonderful 
thing to have my play read by the committee 
here. Of course, at home everybody was nice 
about it because they knew all the Dramatic 
Club and because Father was really giving 
the play. But here— — ” 

She drew a long breath of gratified pride as 
she fell to dreaming of the honors in store for 
her little play. 

She saw it read by the committee, — girls 
with their hair tucked up and with lengthen- 
ing skirts, — she saw the interested faces 
brightening into eagerness as the story un- 
folded. She heard the unanimous verdict 
and she glowed at the generous applause that 
followed. She passed over the rehearsals 


HOPES AND PLANS 


1 19 

lightly, — rehearsals were rather disappointing 
events, she had found from experience, — and 
she drew glowing pictures of the great event. 
She saw the Seniors coming decorously into 
the transformed lecture hall with their guests 
from among the Junior ranks. She saw her- 
self, the only first-year girl admitted, nobly 
refusing to enter the door without her room- 
mate who had been the unthinking cause of 
her own elevation, — and she felt a thrill of 
admiration for this part of her conduct, and 
then her mind went into a delicious whirl as 
she tried to picture the success of the per- 
formance and the rapturous ending to the 
blissful evening. 

Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes shin- 
ing and she was breathing very fast as she 
lived through the delightful evening. “ It 
will be better than it was before/' she thought 
with a thrill. “ It's a very different thing to 
have a play given at a boarding-school like 
Brighton than it is just at home to one’s 
friends. How I wish Father could be here to 
see it ! ” 

She caught the sound of footsteps in the 
study as she took up her pen, and before she 


i2o BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


could dip it in the ink Marian stood in the 
doorway. She had her brown cloak drawn 
about her and her cheeks were reddened with 
the wind. 

“ You ought to have been out,” she told 
Beth Anne as she flung off her soft felt hat. 
“ It's a splendid day. They’re getting the 
slides ready for the coasting to-morrow. I’ll 
get a sled if you’ll go with me, — it’s half 
holiday, you know, and we can coast all we 
like.” 

Beth Anne was ready enough for any' fun, 
now that she had entered into her freedom. 
“ Indeed, I’d love to,” she cried. “ I’d rather 

coast than Why, where are you going ? ” 

she called, but Marian had disappeared as ab- 
ruptly as she had come. 

“ She’s getting interested in things, any- 
way,” thought Beth Anne, as she settled down 
to her writing. “ She doesn’t know what 
we’ve planned for her, but I shouldn’t wonder 
after all if she’d sort of kind of like it, after 
all.” 

She spread out the sheet carefully and 
wrote the date beneath the heading. “ I’ve 
got a lot to write about to the G. S. C., too,” 


HOPES AND PLANS 


121 


she exulted. “ Ben can’t say I'm not having 
a good time here. I’ve been asked to go into 
the Sports, though I’m only first-year and 
new at that. And my play’s to be read and 
I’m going to go coasting to-morrow, and we’re 
to have a little party every night while my 
candy and stuff lasts. I guess that’s about 
enough to fill one letter. And I don’t feel 
a bit sorry that I promised to send the stamps, 
either. Those boys think they know a great 
deal, but they’re mistaken this time.” 

She laughed as she thought of Ben’s ex- 
pression when her glowing description of life 
at boarding-school was read. 

“ And I’ll have more to tell them next 
week,” she said gleefully. “ It will keep on 
getting better and better.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


A PARTNERSHIP OF THREE 

“ But we haven't any sled 1 " 

Beth Anne stopped on the last step of the 
stair and looked at Jinny with concern. 

“ I'd forgotten all about having to get a 
sled," she said. “ We can't do much coasting 
if—" 

“ Oh, come on," returned Jinny carelessly. 
“ We're late now. Marian told you half-past, 
— sharp, and it’s thirty-two minutes past by 
the tower clock." 

Beth Anne hopped down off the step. She 
said nothing, though she thought Jinny was 
very queer not to care about such an impor- 
tant item. “ I suppose we'll have to borrow 
some one's sled, or wait till we’re asked to 
take a ride," she thought as she slammed the 
door behind her. She did not enjoy the pros- 
pect of the afternoon's sport quite so much as 
122 


A PARTNERSHIP OF THREE 123 

she had the minute before the disturbing fact 
dawned on her. 

“ I wish we had our big flyer/’ she began. 
“ If I hadn’t loaned it to Bess I’d send for 
it Oh, what a beauty ! ” she cried, break- 

ing her lament short as she turned to follow 
Jinny down the broad walk. “ Oh, Marian, 
where did you get it? Why, it’s bran new, 
too ! ” 

Marian was smiling her very nicest smile, 
as she brought the big blue and white sled up 
with a flourish. “ Do you like it ? ” she 
asked eagerly. “ I had it done in the school 
colors, you see. I hoped you’d both like that.” 

Beth Anne admired the big sled, while 
Jinny examined the steering-gear and pro- 
nounced it perfect. Both girls were delighted 
with the splendid coaster, and Marian’s plain 
face became rosy with pleasure at their liberal 
praise. 

“But where did you get it?” Beth Anne 
persisted, as they started toward the long hill 
where the gay crowd was gathering. “ I 
didn’t dream you had such a beauty, — and so 
new. I don’t believe it’s been out before,” 
she added, glancing back at the glistening sled 


124 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

skimming over the snow-crust at their heels. 
“ It looks as though it had just come out of 
the shop.” 

“ It has,” admitted Marian, with a twinkle 
actually coming into her serious hazel eyes. 
“ Mullen’s man just left it the minute before 
you came down. I was awfully afraid you’d 
get there first. Didn’t you see him scrambling 
into the delivery-wagon as you came out?” 

Beth Anne shook her curls. “ I wasn’t 
noticing anything,” she said. “ I was so busy 
wondering where we were going to get a 
coaster that I’d have walked straight into a 
whole pack of Mullen’s men and never 
guessed.” 

Jinny turned to Marian as they neared the 
hill. “ But you didn’t use to like coasting, 
M. Lathrop,” she said, in a rather puzzled 
way. “ You never came out with us before.” 

Marian looked away across the sparkling 
snow and a cloud dropped on her face. “ I 
didn’t have any one to go with,” she replied 
shortly. " It’s no fun alone. I’d have stayed 
in till Doomsday if B. A. Burton hadn’t said 
she liked it.” 

Beth Anne could hardly believe her ears. 


A PARTNERSHIP OF THREE 125 

She glanced quickly at Marian, but her face 
was serious enough to be convincing. Her 
own eyes began to shine, and she flung back 
her curls with the gay little gesture she had 
when happy and surprised. 

“ Marian Lathrop, you're a perfect duck ! " 
she said fervently. “ I just feel it in my 
bones that we're going to have a glorious 
time together, — you and Jinny and I. Let’s 
ask everyone in turn to take a ride. It'll be 
such fun to show off our gorgeous flyer. I 
don't believe there’s another like it on the 
whole hill." 

“ That will be the very thing ! " cried Jinny, 
seeing Marian hesitate. “ We'll each ask 
them in turn, and so we'll each have a share 
in the fun. You begin, Marian, as it's your 
sled, you know, and you ought to start the 
ball rolling." 

Marian gave in rather reluctantly. Beth 
Anne's enthusiasm had moved her to sociabil- 
ity, but she had not been prepared to go to 

this length. “ I don't know " she began, 

doubtfully. 

“ Oh, please ! " cried Beth Anne eagerly. 
“ It won’t be half the fun if we keep it to 


126 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

ourselves. And it's big enough for five, any- 
way. You can ask the Twins, — they’re com- 
ing up with Dorothy Mattern now.” 

Marian’s eyes followed the wave of her 
hand toward the shining slide where she 
could see the figures of the two Daltons toil- 
ing up toward the level on which the three 
girls now stood. She did not answer at once. 
She evidently did not hanker after the Dalton 
twins at that moment. Her eyes strayed away 
from the hill and she handed the sled-rope 
to Jinny. 

“ I’ll be back in a minute,” she said, hastily. 
“ I’m going to have some one worth while to 
make our first trip with, anyway,” and she 
sped off, leaving them staring after her. 

“ She’s asking Miss Tapton ! ” said Beth 
Anne, in a hushed voice. “ Miss Tapton ! — 
why, I never dreamed she would dare ask a 
teacher .” 

Jinny laughed at her awed expression. 
“'Miss Tapton is awfully jolly, when she has 
the chance,” she said, warmly. “ She’s a 
splendid skater, and she can play hockey 
better than any of the girls. I’ve never seen 
her coasting, though.” 


A PARTNERSHIP OF THREE 127 

“ But Dorothy Mattern said she was awfully 
snippy to girls who tried to be too friendly.” 
Beth Anne was perplexed again by the con- 
flicting • testimony of the different factions. 
“ She said ” 

“ Has Miss Tapton been snippy to you ? ” 
demanded Jinny. “ Or have you seen her 
snub any one yet ? ” 

“ Oh, no,” replied Beth Anne earnestly. 
“ But the other girls told me she wasn't half 
so nice as Miss Crewson, who was here last 
year ” 

Jinny interrupted her again. “ Just you 
use your two eyes, Babs, and you will see,” 
she said impatiently. “ You'll dislike all the 
teachers if you listen to every girl who has a 
grievance. Shut your ears and open your 
eyes, — that's the only way to know what's 
what in a boarding-school.” 

Beth Anne was rather abashed by this ve- 
hemence. Jinny was not usually so emphatic. 

“ And besides,” Jinny went on with a tinge 
of contempt in her tones, “ the girls here are 
like a flock of sheep, — they'll follow any one 
who talks and treats and plays the spread- 
eagle for them. They hear Dorothy Mattern 


128 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


say Miss Tapton is a snob, and they don't stop 
to see if it’s true. They saw Cara Williams 
turning up her nose at Marian Lathrop and 
they believed that Marian is a criss-cross stupid 
thing. I'm perfectly sick of it, I can tell you. 
I have done it myself, you know," she added 
in a softer tone as she saw the distress on Beth 
Anne's face. “ I believed what they said of 
Marian, and I've found out that they were 
fooling me as well as themselves." 

Beth Anne's dimples came out at this end- 
ing of Jinny's indignant speech. “ I'm glad 
you don’t hate them for it," she said mis- 
chievously. “ You’re really-for-truly fero- 
cious, aren't you, Jinny-pinny, when you get 
roused ? " 

Jinny laughed as she swung the big sled 
around into position and nodded to a group 
of girls who had come up. “ I've been as bad 
as the rest of them," she confessed gaily, “ and 
so I can't throw stones. But I'm going to 
take my own medicine, Babs dear, and you 
can bring on your Beulahs and your Dorothys 
as soon as you please. I'm going to be nice 
to everybody after this." 

Beth Anne bubbled with relief. Here was 


A PARTNERSHIP OF THREE 129 

another step in her progress toward her goal. 
Jinny was giving in without an effort on her 
own part. She gave a little prance as she 
thought of how splendidly it was coming out, 
and she cried joyfully : 

“ That’s just what we all ought to do, isn’t 
it ? You’d better tell Marian about it, — she’s 
sort of severe on the girls, you know, and she 
thinks such a lot of everything you say.” 

Jinny nodded, but there was no time for 
words. Miss Tapton, who had hurried back 
for sweater and cap in place of the blue cloak 
in which she had been wrapped when Marian 
stopped her on her way to the library, was 
coming back with Marian, and soon they were 
all three packed comfortably on the big sled, 
while Jinny pushed off in great style. 

Beth Anne caught her breath as they flew 
over the crest of the hill. 

“ Oh-h-hhh ! ” she murmured rapturously, 
and she clutched Miss Tapton’s waist tightly, 
while Jinny in turn held her firmly in her 
steady arms„ 

“ Oh-h-h /” she breathed as they plunged to 
the swift descent, and she gave Miss Tapton’s 
waist an extra squeeze, entirely forgetting 


i 3 o BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

whom it was her arms encircled. “ Oh, how 
gorgeous ! How ” 

They were at the bottom before she could 
end her cry. She came back to her senses as 
they got up and shook the snow from their 
hair and clothing. 

“ Oh, Miss Tapton, I hope you’ll excuse 
me,” she said with a blush. “ I didn’t mean 
to grab you like that. I just forgot where I 
was when we began to fly, and I’m afraid I 
held on awfully tight.” 

Miss Tapton smiled at her as they started 
up-hill among the other coasters. “ That’s 
the only way to hold on when you’re on a 
flyer,” she answered, gaily. “ I’d have gone 
off in a wink if you hadn’t done your part 
back of me there. I’m going to sit back of 
you next time, and you’ll see how I can hold 
on.” 

Beth Anne was delighted by this kindly 
comradeship on the part of a teacher. She 
beamed on Miss Tapton as they trudged after 
Marian and Jinny, who were dragging the big 
sled, and she hailed all the girls she knew, 
calling cheerily to them all impartially. At 
the top of the hill, when they were getting 


A PARTNERSHIP OF THREE 131 

ready again for the swift flight downward, she 
whispered to Jinny in a flutter of gay spirits : 

“ She's perfectly sweet, Jinny-pinny. I'll 
never believe anything that anybody says 
about any one after this. Really-for-truly I 
won't ! She seems to like all the girls, too, 
doesn't she? She spoke to them all so — so — 
jollity ." 

Jinny's eyes said, “ I told you so/' but she 
made no reply. She pushed Beth Anne into 
place behind Marian, who held the steering 
rope, and after Miss Tapton had tucked up 
her skirts again, away they sped, down and 
down, passing every sled on the hill and 
winding up at the bottom a full ten yards be- 
yond the rest. 

It was Beth Anne's turn to help to tug the 
flyer up-hill this time, and she flung back 
her laughing acknowledgment to Miss Tap- 
ton as she made off with Jinny and the 
blue-and-white coaster. “ You did it ! " she 
crowed. “ You did it ! I thought I was tight, 
but you were tighter. My, how you squoze ! " 

Dorothy Mattern, who was passing with 
Beulah's party, glanced at Beth Anne in 
amazement. “ You'd better look out," she 


1 32 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

whispered under her breath. “ Tappie can 
bite, you know.” 

“ Pooh, that's all stuff!” retorted Beth 
Anne in the same tone, though she glanced 
back rather anxiously, nevertheless. 

But Miss Tapton’s face was serene. Beth 
Anne did not know she had overheard the 
brief words until, at the top of the hill again, 
she said good-bye to them, vowing that she 
would like nothing better than to stay till the 
bell called them all in, but that papers must 
be marked and averages made up, — coasting 
or no coasting. 

“ Tell Dorothy Mattern that I'll try her 
skill as a steersman the next time I come 
out,” she said with a little laugh and a look 
at Beth Anne, who blushed and looked con- 
scious. 

“ What did she mean ? ” asked Jinny, after 
she had gone, and while Marian was securing 
the Twins, who were Jinny’s choice for the 
next trip. 

Beth Anne giggled. “ Dorothy will be 
scared stiff,” was all that she would say, and 
Jinny had to be satisfied with it. 

The Twins were enthusiastic in their praise 


A PARTNERSHIP OF THREE 133 

of the sled and Marian’s skill in guiding it. 
“ I tell you, M. Lathrop,” said Dalton major 
earnestly, “ the girls are all wild to get a 
ride on your flyer, — now that they’ve seen 
how splendidly it runs. It’s the fastest thing 
on the hill.” 

Marian was so pleased with this unusual 
praise that she insisted on giving the Twins 
two extra turns, and she smiled more and 
more as she listened to the murmurs of ap- 
proval that hummed about their ears as they 
flew past the other sleds and made their 
spectacular sweep up to the very crest of the 
next little incline at the end of the course. 

“ You did it all,” she said to Beth Anne in 
an undertone as they went up through the 
laughing crowds, while the Twins proudly 
hauled the Comet, as it was labeled in shiny 
gold letters on its azure back. 

“ Did what?” asked Beth Anne, absently. 
She was watching Beulah Whitridge, who was 
toiling up the snowy incline just ahead, and 
she was thinking she had never seen so pretty 
or so gay a girl anywhere. 

0 Made us all have such a good time this 
afternoon,” returned Marian steadily. “ I’d 


i 3 4 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

never have thought of coasting if you hadn’t 
said you loved it, you know.” 

Beth Anne looked at her with interest now. 
She saw that her face was shining and her 
whole manner brightened and changed. In 
spite of the dull brown hat and the equally 
dull gray sweater, Marian was no longer 
severe and plain looking. Beth Anne felt 
that she had little real part in this transform- 
ation but she was willing to make her oppor- 
tunities. 

“ Oh, it’s not me,” she protested ungram- 
matically. “ It’s because you’ve begun to 
take an interest. You’ll have lots of fun, 
now that you’re started. The girls will be 
jolly enough when we get to know them. 
You’ll see if they aren't heaps nicer than you 
think.” She drew her breath for the final 
test of Marian’s good nature and then she 
said valiantly, “ I’m going to ask Beulah and 
Dorothy Mattern, if you don’t mind. Miss 
Tapton said she was going coasting with them 
next time she came out.” 

Marian turned away before Beth Anne 
could see her face, but her voice was pleasant 
enough when she answered. 


A PARTNERSHIP OF THREE 135 

“ Ask any one you please, of course/’ she 
said, tugging at her mitten-string which had 
knotted suddenly. “ I didn’t ask your per- 
mission to take Miss Tapton along.” 

“ Oh, but it’s your sled,” cried Beth Anne, 
relieved and delighted by this generosity. 
“ It’s yours, you know, and ” 

“ See here,” said Marian, turning to her 
with a flushed face. “ That sled belongs to 
all of us,— to all of us, do you hear ? And I 
won’t go another ride in it if you talk like 
that. I got it for the three of us, and you’re 
just as much owner as I am, or as V. Ran- 
dolph is. It’s a partnership concern.” 

Beth Anne felt that the moment had come. 
She seized Marian eagerly by the sleeve, for- 
getting the crowds of passing girls, forgetting 
that she had meant to wait at least until after 
the encounter between Beulah and her room- 
mate and only remembering that other part- 
nership which she and Jinny had planned 
the day before. 

“ Oh, Marian, let’s be partners in every- 
thing,” she said impulsively. “ Jinny would 
love it.” 

And having broken the ice, she plunged 


136 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

into an entreaty that Marian should join 
them in their effort to be friendly and sociable 
to all. 

“ You'll like it if you'll only try it," she 
urged, as though she were recommending a 
tonic or a breakfast food. “ It will make 
things a whole lot jollier, — really-for-truly it 
will." 

“ It sounds sort of stuck-up and preachy to 
me," demurred Marian, hesitating to commit 
herself, even while she felt a thrill of pride in 
Beth Anne’s interest. She pulled her sleeve 
away very gently and began to mount the 
hill, smiling down at Beth Anne in a way 
that took the sting out of her words. 

Beth Anne's bright face clouded. She had 
not looked for so severe a criticism. She had 
expected that Marian in her changed mood 
would consent to anything that she and Jinny 
recommended. 

“ It isn't a bit preachy," she protested in a 
hurt voice, not heeding the smile. “ It's — 
it's just trying to have a good time and all 
that. Oh," she ended dismally, “ I did so 
want you to be in it ! " 

Marian stopped, putting herself in Beth 


A PARTNERSHIP OF THREE 137 

Anne's path. “ Don't fuss,” she said rather 
ungraciously. “ I'll do whatever you want, — 
if V. Randolph wants it, too.” 

Beth Anne's cloud disappeared in a twin- 
kling. She was not apt to be critical about 
small things. Since Marian had promised to 
join them in their endeavors, she was con- 
tent. Thoughts of all the jolly parties and 
gay doings that might follow Marian’s de- 
cision rose before her as she poured out her 
delight in a flood of eager satisfaction. 

She told Jinny as soon as they reached the 
top of the hill. “ She's going to do it, too,” 
she said triumphantly, as the Twins went off. 
“ She's going to help with the parties, and 
she's told me to ask Beulah Whitridge for the 
next trip down.” 

They had a merry time of it for the rest 
of the afternoon ; for Beulah and Dorothy, 
impressed by the popularity of the new sled 
and of Marian's new companions, were as 
agreeable as any one could have wished, and 
the other girls who were invited to take their 
places on the Comet fell into line with the 
behavior of the more popular and influential 
of their mates. 


1 38 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

“ I’ve had a fine time, and I'll be over to- 
night at eight for sure," said Beulah as she 
left them, when the whole party of merry- 
makers were recalled by the big bell. “ That's 
a dandy flyer of yours, M. Lathrop. I hope 
I'm to have another ride on it soon." 

“ Whenever you like," Marian replied, and 
while her tone was not cordial Beth Anne 
rejoiced in the words. 

“ It's coming out splendidly, and we're go- 
ing to have plenty of fun," she thought, as 
she watched Beulah's graceful figure disap- 
pear across the quadrangle. “ I don't believe 
I'll ever feel homesick here again." 

She skipped along in the gathering twi- 
light, smiling to herself. 

She was going over the events of the night 
before. The Dalton twins had been better 
than she had hoped. The larger one, Hor- 
tense by name, had brought a mandolin, 
having heard from Jinny that Beth Anne 
was fond of singing, and though she could 
not play she managed to thrum out a few one- 
finger accompaniments to some old favorites. 
They had sung “ Suwanee River " and “ Old 
Black Joe " and the School Song with great 


A PARTNERSHIP OF THREE 139 

zest. They had toasted marshmallows and 
talked cozily about the fire which had been 
kindled on the little hearth. Marian had 
told a couple of jokes that she had read in 
the new weekly that day, and altogether Beth 
Anne had found it a delightful evening. 

“ We're all going to be regular chums before 
long," she thought with a skip. “ I can like 
Beulah all I wish now that she's friends with 
Marian and Jinny. I wonder if she will ask 
us over to her rooms some time soon." 

She danced along gaily, sliding on every 
slippery spot, and she hummed the tune of 
the little song in “ The Little Brown Princess " 
under her breath. 

“ I wish Marian would fix up a bit for 
to-night," she thought, struck by a sudden 
idea. “ She'd look different if she tried. I 

wish " and she paused, with the light of a 

good resolution shining in her eyes. 

“ I'll do it," she declared as she hurried 
after the two retreating forms that were disap- 
pearing into the basement door where they 
stowed the gorgeous Comet. 

“ I'll do it," she repeated with a throb of 
courage. “ I’ll ask her after dinner." 


CHAPTER IX 


AN EXPERIMENT THAT WORKED 

Dinner was unusually lively that night. 

“ The coasting party has waked us all up,” 
thought Beth Anne, as she saw Marian’s 
flushed cheeks and heard her talking in a 
lively fashion to the smaller Twin. “ I do 
hope she’s going to keep it up. Those girls 
across the table are opening their eyes, and I 
guess they begin to think she’s not such a 
Miss Prunes after all.” 

She had not so much appetite for her dinner 
as she might have had, for her resolve to try 
to induce her roommate to adorn herself a 
little in honor of her guests lay heavy on her 
mind. 

She looked at Beulah from time to time, 
and she wondered if, after all, she ought to 
have asked her to come on this very first night 
of Marian’s efforts at sociability. 

“ She'll want to laugh at her stiff ways, 
even if she doesn’t show it,” she thought un- 
140 


AN EXPERIMENT 


141 

easily. “ She can’t have changed her whole 
mind about Marian in such a short time. Oh, 
dear, I almost wish I hadn’t started it all. I 
wish I had the good old G. S. C. here to help 
make things jolly. Bess and Ben would have 
it going beautifully in no time.” 

A pang shot through her as she thought of 
those good comrades, now so far away, and 
for a second she heartily wished herself back 
in the beloved Gym, rehearsing a play or 
practising for the Saturday afternoons, with 
Ben’s jolly voice calling out the events or 
Claire’s slow clear tones prompting the actors 
when their memory failed. “ They always 
understand ,” she thought. “ It’s pretty hard to 
have to get acquainted with a perfectly strange 
set of girls all at once.” 

Catching Jinny’s eyes upon her she nodded 
gaily, and was instantly ashamed of herself 
for faltering. “ I’m afraid to speak to Marian, 
— that’s what’s the matter with me,” she told 
herself, as she rose with the others. “ I’m a 
regular baby, after all my fine talk to Jinny. 
I won’t go on being a silly thing, though. 
I’ll do it, just as I intended. I won’t let any- 
thing stop me, either.” 


1 42 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

Following this gallant impulse, she linked 
her arm in Marian's, as they went through 
the arcade. “ I'm going to ask you to do 
something when we get up-stairs," she warned 
her. “ You're going to do it, too, — aren’t 
you, Marian dear? " 

Her heart beat very fast as she said that 
“ dear " and she actually blushed in the dimly 
lighted hall, for she felt that she was very 
crafty and cunning to try to lure her room- 
mate in this fashion. “ I'm a horrid sneak," 
she thought dismally in the tiny interval be- 
fore Marian replied. “ I'm pretending to 
like her more than I really do. Oh, dear ! " 

Marian drew a long breath before she an- 
swered. “ I’ll do anything , — anything you 
ask me to," she said in a low voice. “ I can 
trust you." 

Beth Anne felt more of a plotting deceiver 
than ever as she stood hesitating on the study 
rug, while Marian snapped on the lights. 
She saw the happy flush on the other girl’s 
cheek deepen as she faced her, and her own 
grew slightly pale. 

“ And now, what is it?" demanded Marian 
with her nicest smile. “ You look as though 


AN EXPERIMENT 


I 43 

it were mighty serious ; but don't be afraid, — 
I’ll promise all you wish to-night. We can 
try the merry act once, anyway.” 

Thus encouraged, Beth Anne drew her 
faculties together. She wanted to put it 
gently, but her skill failed her. “ I thought 
perhaps you'd put on another dress, — a pretty 
one, and let me help you fix your hair differ- 
ently,'' she faltered out baldly. “ It's so nice 

to look well, and — and ” her voice died 

away in confusion as Marian's hazel eyes 
began to burn and the smile faded from her 
lips. 

“ Do you mean that I'm not good enough 
for you as I am ? ” she asked hotly, dropping 
her brown cloak in a heap on the floor. “ Are 
you afraid I’ll disgrace you among those 
dressed-up geese that are coming here to- 
night ? ” 

Beth Anne did not like to be misjudged. 
The injustice of these hot words roused her 
instant wrath. She faced Marian with the 
red mounting to her cheeks and a spark glow- 
ing in her blue eyes. 

“ You know perfectly well that I mean no 
such thing,” she retorted, shaking her curls 


i 4 4 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

and stamping her foot emphatically. “ You 
know I'm not such a horrid, horrid, horrid 
thing as that, and you ought to be ashamed 
of yourself to think such abominable thoughts I 
I wasn't " 

“ Oh, don't be cross," broke in Marian 
swiftly. Her whole expression had changed, 
and she was holding out her hands to the irate 
Beth Anne. “ I didn't mean — I was only 
afraid for one little second, — I know you 
weren't. Forgive me, won't you?" 

Beth Anne was almost as much surprised 
to hear Marian pleading for forgiveness as she 
had been at her attack of the moment before, 
but she did not stop to wonder at it. She 
took the hands that were held out to her and 
she gave them a hearty squeeze before she 
dropped them. Her dimples came out like 
sun after a shower, and she bubbled with 
eager atonement. 

“ Of course you didn't mean it," she cried 
joyfully. “ I was a goose to snap you up, 
too. I won't be humpy any more. Let’s get 
ready now," and she started for her room, 
resigned to the failure of her scheme. 

“ Wait a minute," said Marian in a queer 


AN EXPERIMENT 


H5 

sort of voice. “ Won’t you — won’t you show 
me how to do my hair like the other girls? 
I can’t put on a pretty dress, for I haven’t a 
single one that isn’t just like this,” she ended 
in a burst of confidence, “ but if you’ll help 
me with my hair and tell me how to put on a 
collar that I got last Christmas and tell me 
about a tie, — I have a blue one that I’ve never 
needed to wear, — I’ll try to be fixed up in 
time for them when they come.” 

Beth Anne was so genuinely surprised at 
this sudden change that she fairly flew back 
into the study. She grasped Marian about 
the neck and danced about with her jubi- 
lantly, half choking her in her exultation. 

“ You dear thing,” she cried with an extra 
squeeze that made Marian gasp and splutter 
through her laughter. “We’ll have you 
fitted out into a perfect beauty in no time. 
Come on,” and she dragged her roommate 
toward her bedroom, eager to begin the de- 
lightful process. 

“ Let’s see the collar and tie first,” she ex- 
claimed, and she dropped on her knees beside 
the trunk when it was opened and waited 
eagerly for the treasures to be brought out. 


1 46 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

“ Oh, they’re sweet ! ” she cried as she took 
the lace collar and slipped it on Marian’s 
shoulders. “ Do look at yourself, Marian. 
It’s as becoming as can be, and when you 
have the lovely blue tie on, you’ll look per- 
fectly fine.” 

Marian was much encouraged, and she 
threw off her dull frock and fell to shaking 
out her hair with a right good will. 

Beth Anne cried out again at the luxuriant 
locks that fell in smooth shining lengths 
beneath Marian’s vigorous brush. “ I never 
dreamed you had so much, or that it was the 
least bit wavy,” she said. “ It’s a shame to 
have kept it tucked up in that old pompadour 
and that tight screwed-up plait. Here, let 
me show you,” and she pushed Marian into a 
chair and began arranging her hair into a soft 
fluff around her face with a loose, graceful 
plait at the back. 

“ There, that’s something like,” she de- 
clared with pride. “ I’ll twist it into a little 
curl at the end, — it’ll curl splendidly with a 
little water, — and I’ll put a blue ribbon in a 
nice big bow at the back of your head, and 
you’ll look — oh, do turn around and see how 


AN EXPERIMENT 


147 

you look ! Isn’t it perfectly wonderful what 
a difference it makes ? ” 

Marian admitted with a pleased blush that 
it was indeed wonderful, and she stood staring 
at her reflection in the mirror while Beth 
Anne dashed into the bathroom for the neces- 
sary water for curling purposes. 

“ I knew you’d be delighted when you saw 
yourself,” she said jubilantly, returning to find 
Marian still at the glass. “ You’ll like it 
better still when you get that pretty collar and 
tie on. It’s nice to be pretty, isn’t it? ” 

“ I’ll never be pretty,” said Marian decid- 
edly, and then she added in a more hesitat- 
ing tone, “ Don’t you think it’s sort of con- 
ceited, — this dressing up and thinking about 
clothes ? ” 

Beth Anne dropped the tail of hair she 
had begun to curl, and she stared at Marian 
with genuine amazement. “ Conceited ? ” she 
echoed. “ Conceited ? Why, that hasn’t any- 
thing to do with it. People are just as con- 
ceited about ugly things as they are about 
pretty ones. It isn’t the things that count, 
Mother says, it’s the way we feel about them. 
Goodness gracious me ! ” she exploded, “ I 


148 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

guess people have been more conceited about 
ugly cruel things than they ever were about 
pretty ones. Those old splendid Pilgrim 
fathers were awfully stuck-up over their 
chopped-off hair, weren’t they ? And their 
curls would have been a lot prettier, wouldn’t 
they ? ” 

“ That’s different,” returned Marian, not 
much impressed. “ They cut off their hair 
because they thought it sinful to even look 
like those bad, dressed-up cavaliers. They 
did it for religion.” 

Beth Anne’s eyes shone with eagerness. 
“ Well, and doesn’t God want us to look 
nice?” she demanded. “Hasn’t He made 
everything as pretty as can be for us ? Mother 
says she believes that the nice verse about the 
beauty of our God being on us, means that we 
ought to be as fine outside as we are inside.” 

“ How about the people who aren’t nice 
inside ? ” asked Marian, hanging in the bal- 
ance in a way that made Beth Anne squirm 
with impatience. 

“ Oh, bother ! ” she cried. “ We can’t help 
what other people do. All we have to do 
is to be as good as we can and try to make 


AN EXPERIMENT 


H9 

ourselves look nice. Good people ought to 
look attractive, so the bad ones will like them 
and try to — to — — : " she stuck here in spite of 
herself and had to scramble out of it as best 
she could. “ I can't just explain what I 
mean," she ended, “ but Father and Mother 
both think it's right to be pretty if you're 
trying to be good, too. And I know they're 
always right. You ought to see Mother. 
You’d understand what I mean." 

She fell to curling the tail of soft hair, and 
Marian stood very still watching her with 
earnest eyes. Presently she reached over and 
touched one of Beth Anne's curls with a gentle 
finger. 

“ You're good, I guess," she said in a low 
voice. 

Beth Anne looked up quickly. “ Oh, no 
I'm not — yet," she said emphatically. “ But 
I'm going to be pretty soon, I hope." 

Marian said nothing for a second. She was 
evidently thinking very seriously, however, 
for she nodded her head, as Beth Anne 
dropped the fat curl and she said, with her 
smile coming back : 

“I guess you're right, B. A. Burton. It 


1 50 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

doesn’t hurt people to look nice if they aren’t 
always thinking about it. You see, I’ve al- 
ways been with Grandmother — and she’s 
blind, you know — and since I’ve been here 
I’ve had a dose of the other sort. Cara Will- 
iams was crazy over clothes, and she looked 
down on me because I hadn’t any pretty ones.” 

It was the first time that Marian had spoken 
of her former roommate, and Beth Anne was 
all eagerness. “ Was she pretty ? ” she asked, 
merely to keep Marian going. “ Did she put 
that lovely rug in the study ? Beulah told 
me that she was very rich and had lots of 
beautiful things. I’m glad she got the bath- 
room put in, anyway. It’s such a comfort to 
have it inside ” 

She stopped, for Marian was staring at her 
with a very queer expression. 

“ Did she tell Beulah that she got the bath- 
room put in ? ” she asked in a contemptuous 
tone. And then, as Beth Anne nodded, she 
gave a short little laugh. “ That sounds like 
her, so I guess it’s true,” she said, with a curl 
of her lip. “ She was like that.” 

“But ” began Beth Anne, curious 

enough for two. “ But ” 


AN EXPERIMENT 


iSi 

Marian held out the collar. “ Come, show 
me how this goes on,” she said, dropping into 
her usual tone and manner. “ It’s getting 
late, and it may take ages to get it anchored.” 

Beth Anne was silenced. 

She helped adjust the collar, and she tied 
the blue scarf about Marian's neck with 
ready compliance, but her curiosity was not 
quenched. “ I'll get her to tell me about 
Cara Williams some time soon,” she thought. 
“ She’ll go on, now that she's spoken about 
her, but she'll take her own time.” 

Marian certainly was not to be led about 
by the nose, even by her dearest guide. Beth 
Anne, watching her move about the little 
study arranging the tea-table and straight- 
ening the pictures, told herself that her room- 
mate had a mind of her own. “ She won't 
do a single thing unless she sees some sense 
in it,” she thought, and she liked Marian all 
the more for it. 

As her eyes fell on the beautiful oriental 
rug which glowed on the study floor she for- 
got her snubbing of a few minutes before and 
she said impulsively : 

“It is a beauty, isn't it? We have one 


1 52 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

with those same lovely blues and greens and 
yellows in it. Father said it was an Obelisk, 
I think, made at Hermit.” 

Marian actually laughed out loud. 

“ You mean an Odjalik of the Kirman 
weave,” she corrected her. “ Yes, that’s what 
this one is. My father got it in Persia ” 

“ Why, it’s yours, after all ! ” cried Beth 
Anne. “ How could you keep from telling 
me? You let me think it was Cara Williams’, 
and ” 

“ You might have known she wouldn’t 
leave any of her belongings here with me,” 
Marian told her calmly. “ You’d have seen 
that when you thought it over. I didn’t care, 
anyway.” 

Beth Anne was on another scent now, and 
her eyes snapped. “ And she didn’t have 
permission to put in a private bathroom, 
either,” she announced with a wag of her 
head that sent her curls bobbing. “ You had 
that done. I know it now. But how — — ” 
She was glad she could stop herself before 
the words popped out, for what she was going 
to ask was how could Marian, who wore such 
plain clothes and wasn’t in any of the school 


AN EXPERIMENT 


*53 

clubs or extras, — how could she afford such a 
thing? 

Marian seemed to understand, and she 
smiled provokingly. 

“ Grandmother is very particular about 
scrubbing, and she knows Miss Cary's sister 
very well," she explained, seeming to enjoy 
Beth Anne's confusion. “ I suppose that's 
why the board consented. They're mighty 
careful not to let it get about, though. You 
know it's against the rules to allow any per- 
sonal luxuries or liberties like that. I believe 
if I hadn't been such a Plain Jane they’d 
have declined with thanks anyway. They 
knew I wasn't going to be too much puffed 
up over it, from what Miss Cary told them 
about us." 

Beth Anne was delighted at having gone so 
deeply into the reserved Marian's confidence, 
and she ardently hoped that Beulah and the 
others would be late so that she might have 
more time for chat while Marian was in the 
mood for talk. 

“They wouldn't have given their consent 
if they could see you now," she said with a 
little laugh. “ You look like other girls 


1 54 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

now. Do tell me something about your grand- 
mother. Is she very old ? And does she live 
all alone? ” 

Marian seated herself on the arm of the 
easy chair by the fire. “ Well, she’s not very 
easy to describe,” she began thoughtfully. 
“ She doesn’t seem old to me. She’s ” 

Rap ! Rap ! Rap ! 

The little brass knocker on the study door 
broke out into a perfect din, and Marian 
sprang up from her chair-arm in a panic. 

“ Oh, don’t let them in right off,” she cried 
under her breath. “ Tell me if I’m all right. 
Is my collar straight? Does my hair look all 
right? It feels as if it were tumbling down, 
— it’s so loose.” 

Beth Anne giggled at her stricken face. 

“ You look perfectly sweet,” she whispered 
as she pushed her toward the door. “ Do go 
open it for them. I want to see how they 
look when they see you ! ” 


CHAPTER X 


MARIAN BEGINS TO WAKE UP 

“ Now then,” said Beth Anne triumphantly, 
“ don't you think it's worth while to look 
nice?” 

The door had just closed on their guests, 
and Marian was standing on the hearth-rug, 
staring into the dying fire, while Beth Anne 
fluttered about the room, pushing the chairs 
into place, nibbling a bonbon, and chattering 
happily. 

Marian glanced at her affectionately, and 
then stared into the embers again. “ I sup- 
pose you're right about making the best of 
myself, — hideous as I am,” she said slowly. 
“ But I think you're wrong about trying to 
make me mix with the Stylish Set, as V. Ran- 
dolph called them.” 

Beth Anne’s vivid face showed dismay. 
“ Oh, dear, don’t talk like that,” she cried. 

155 


1 56 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

“ You mustn’t think that, you know. Just 
try to feel that everybody is nice, and then 
you’ll be chums with them all. Please, 
please don’t say that you’re not going to try 
to like Beulah and Dorothy, for I’ve just set 
my heart 011 us all being friends.” 

“ We- 1 - 1 ,” returned Marian reluctantly. 
“ I’ll do my best, but I warn you it isn’t any 
use. We’re made differently. We don’t see 
things the same way. They only care about 
fun and being rich and having clothes, and I 
hate all that.” 

“ But you had a good time to-night,” broke 
in Beth Anne triumphantly. “ You told 
Jinny so when she was going out that very 
door. And you liked my russet corduroy, — 
you told me that it made your eyes feel good. 
And you have that heavenly rug and those 
lovely books, — don’t tell me, Marian Lathrop, 
that you don’t like gorgeous things ! ” 

Marian frowned thoughtfully in the ashes 
where the last spark was dimming into gray 
flakes. “ It’s not the same thing,” she said 
stubbornly. “ Of course I like beautiful 
things, — the rug, and the book bindings and 
all that. That’s different. But I’ll never 


MARIAN BEGINS 


l S7 

like those girls except just as — as — recreation. 
I can put up with them for a while, and I 
can laugh at their funny speeches, — for they 
are clever at such things,— but I'd no more 
be content to be real friends with them than 
I'd want to spend all my daytime in playing 
games." She paused, having made herself 
clear, and then she added, with a little laugh, 
“ You see, I'm a hard case to work on, B. A. 
Burton. Don't you think you'd better give 
up trying to make me into a society bud ? " 

Beth Anne fairly gritted her teeth at such 
an half-hearted way of looking at the matter. 
“ No, I don't ! " she cried, vehemently. “ I'm 
never going to give up. You've got to make 
yourself look well, and you've got to be nice 
to the girls. You've promised, and I simply 
shan't let you slip." 

Marian smiled at her intense feeling. “ Oh, 
if you're going to take it that way, I won't 
make another balk," she said, good-naturedly. 
“ I'll stick to my promise, if it does sicken me 
a bit at times." 

Beth Anne patted her on the shoulder. “ I 
thought you'd see it in the right way," she 
told her, graciously. “ You'll go over to 


158 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

Beulah’s on Monday evening, won’t you? 
You didn’t accept very loudly, I noticed.” 

“ Oh, of course, I’ll go,” replied Marian 
with a grimace. “ I’m in for everything I’m 
asked to, I suppose. Did you ever see a girl 
who nosed about like Dorothy Mattern ? ” she 
asked with a change of tone. “ I thought she 
was going to insist on my turning out my 
bureau drawers and stocking-bag for her.” 

Beth Anne giggled. “ She liked your rug 
and your lovely photographs of India and 
Ceylon, though,” she reminded Marian. “ I 
suppose she didn’t realize that she was poking 
about. She’s very friendly, you know.” 

“ Hm-m-m,” returned Marian, suddenly 
absent looking. “ Would you like to see 
some of my things, B. A. B. ? I’ve some 
stuff in my trunk that no one has seen here 
at Brighton.” 

“ Oh, indeed, I’d love to,” Beth Anne ex- 
claimed. She was very much impressed by 
this confidence. She thought that her room- 
mate was much more entertaining than she 
had thought possible. 

“Come on, then,” commanded Marian, and 
Beth Anne followed her into the bedroom, 


MARIAN BEGINS 


l 5 9 

where the great wicker trunk took up half of 
one side of the room. 

Marian unlocked the trunk, delved among 
the trays, and brought out a red morocco case 
with gilt scroll-work on it and a tiny lock for 
the tiny key which she unearthed from among 
the handkerchiefs in her upper drawer. 

“ There’s something pretty,” she said with 
loving piide, as she laid back the lid and 
held out the box for Beth Anne to see. “ I 
hope you won’t expect me to wear them, 
though, for I’ve promised Grandmother not 
to until I’m eighteen.” 

Beth Anne bent over the red morocco case 
with a cry of genuine rapture. 

“ Oh, oh, how beautiful,” she breathed fer- 
vently. “Oh, Marian, they’re perfectly gor- 
geous ! ” 

She touched one of the rings that lay 
among the coils of the long jeweled chain. 
“ What a heavenly ring,” she sighed. “ Oh, 
how wonderful to have such lovely things. 
Do you ever put them on ? ” 

Marian set down the box and took up, one 
after another, the long chain with the emer- 
alds sparkling in its ornate links, and the 


160 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


tiny diamond-studded watch, and the brace* 
let of dull eastern gold with the amethysts 
set deep in its curving scrolls. “ Try them 
on,” she offered Beth Anne. “ It won't do 
them any harm,” she urged as Beth Anne 
hesitated. “ I often get them out and put 
them on when I am by myself. Grandmother 
wouldn't mind your putting them on.” 

Beth Anne took the bracelet, but she did 
not put it on. She looked at it closely, ad- 
miring its fine and intricate design, and then 
she laid it back in its box with great care. 
She examined the beautiful chain and the 
dainty watch, but she did not accept Marian's 
offer. 

“ I feel sort of afraid to put on another 
girl's things,” she explained as she deposited 
the watch on its satin bed. “ Mother never 
lets me wear anything that isn’t really-for- 
truly my own.” ( 

Her eyes followed Marian’s fingers long- 
ingly, however, as she lifted the two rings, 
one a green square of clear emerald set about 
with pearls, and the other a hoop of white 
diamonds that flashed and winked in the 
light most alluringly. Marian slipped them 


MARIAN BEGINS 161 

on her long slim brown fingers and held them 
so that Beth Anne got the full effect of their 
brilliance. 

“ Oh, I do love rings so,” she sighed. “ I 
have a regular hungry spot in my stomach 
every time I look at pretty rings. They're 
beauties, Marian, — perfect beauties.” 

“ Slip them on,” urged Marian, with a 
smile. “ It may take away the gnawing for 
a while at least. I'll see that you don't run 
away with them.” 

Beth Anne simply could not resist. She 
took the two shining rings and she put one 
on each hand and she waved her fingers 
about in the most extravagant attitudes, for- 
getting everything in her delight in the rings. 
Marian watched her with a pleased smile. 

“ You may try them on whenever you 
like,” she told her, when Beth Anne slipped 
them off and handed them to her with a sigh. 
“ I often take them out, and you may see 
them whenever I do.” 

“ Oh, I mustn't do that,” Beth Anne pro- 
tested feebly. “ I don't believe I ought to do 
that.” 

She was evidently disappointed when Ma- 


1 62 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


rian accepted her refusal with a nod and look 
of understanding. “ Oh, you mean you’d be 
doing what your mother didn't wish you to," 
she said, shutting the lid with a snap. “ All 
right. I won't offer them to you again. But 
you may look at them, mayn't you, when I do 
have them out? " 

Beth Anne thought there could be no harm 
in that. “ But does your grandmother allow 
you to keep such valuable things in your 
room?" she asked, as Marian locked the 
trunk on her treasures. “ I thought the girls 
had to put their valuables in the safe." 

“ Grandmother doesn’t care. She knows I 
wouldn’t wear them. They're the only things 
I have to remember my mother by. Father 
wants me to have them with me and to look 
at them often," replied Marian, rummaging 
again. “ He says that I can't look at them 
too often to please him. Here’s her picture," 
she ended abruptly, holding out a miniature 
in a narrow gold frame. “ She's sweet, isn’t 
she?" 

“ She's lovely," Beth Anne said softly, tak- 
ing the picture and looking at the face within 
the oval. “ You look like her, Marian, — 


MARIAN BEGINS 163 

only of course she has a different sort of look. 
Didn't you ever see her?" 

Marian shook her head. “ She died when 
I was a little baby," she answered, taking the 
miniature and looking at it lovingly. “ She 
was always happy, Father told me, and she 
liked other people to have a good time. 
Father wants me to be like her when I grow 
up but I don't see how I can ever do it. He 
sent me these things of hers last year, — the 
rest of her things are in bank, — and he told 
me to try to remember that she loved God 
and could never wish any of His creatures 
harm. Wasn't that a queer message? I 
wanted to ask Grandmother about it, but it 
makes her dreadfully sad to speak of Mother, 
and so I didn't. What do you think he 
meant? " 

11 1 don't know," Beth Anne had to confess, 
though she would have liked to have been 
more helpful. “ I guess it's one of those things 
that grown-up people say to us that we can't 
understand till we're grown-up ourselves. 
They do that, you know. Is your father in 
Persia ? " 

Marian put the picture back in its place. 


164 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

44 He’s in India now,” she replied absently. 
44 He’s been there for eight years. I haven’t 
seen him since I was a mere baby.” 

44 In India,” cried Beth Anne, delighted 
with each revelation of her roommate’s. 
44 How romantic ! Does he wear a turban and 
smoke a narghili ? Or is it a hookah ? 
Haven’t you a picture of him to show me ? ” 

Marian had no picture, but she said there 
was a painting of him at her grandmother’s 
house, and he looked just like other people. 
44 He had it painted for me,” she told Beth 
Anne. 44 He’s quite good looking, — you’d 
never think I was related to him.” 

Beth Anne had her mind filled with Indian 
nabobs and she could not give up the idea 
without a struggle. 44 I suppose he put on 
regular clothes to be painted in,” she said with 
a nod. 44 You know, people always want to 
look very fine and different from their regu- 
lar selves when they’re going to be painted. 
I think he must wear those beautiful flowing 
robes when he’s not being painted. It must 
be very thrilling to have a father in India.” 

“ I think it would be a lot better to have 
him here,” replied Marian sensibly. 44 I’m 


MARIAN BEGINS 165 

always hoping he'll be back soon. Grand- 
mother is pretty sure he'll be home this year, 
but she's thought that for ever so long. I'd 
like to know what it feels like to. have a 
father. I've always had to put up with gov- 
ernesses or housekeepers or maids, — Grand- 
mother being blind of course I couldn't ex- 
pect anything else, but I do wish I could have 
a real live relative." 

Beth Anne was so occupied with a rapid 
reconstruction of all her ideas as to her room- 
mate that she only half sympathized with 
Marian's lament. She uttered an absent, 
“ Too bad," while her busy brain shaped an 
entirely new picture in which the sparkle of 
jewels and the turbans of Islam mingled de- 
lightfully with mysterious dark-eyed Ameri- 
can nabobs. “ Your father has dark eyes, 
hasn’t he? " she asked Marian abruptly. 

Marian stared. “ Why, no, his eyes in the 
portrait are quite light," she replied. “ What 
makes you ask ? ” 

Beth Anne giggled. “I was just thinking 
out loud," she explained not very clearly. “ I 
do that sometimes, and it always sounds 
queer. Mercy, it's almost time to turn off the 


1 66 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


light ! And I’ve simply got to scratch a line 
in my diary.” 

“ I’ll clear up while you get at it,” offered 
Marian, and Beth Anne was glad to accept. 

She took out her inkstand and opened it 
carefully. Her face was full of a pleasant ex- 
citement, and she began to scribble. 

“ It was half holiday to-day, being Satur- 
day. Marian telephoned over to Mullen’s 
yesterday for a splendid sled and we went 
coasting on it to-day. The girls are beginning 
to be very jolly to us. Marian looks so differ- 
ent with her new hair and collar and blue tie. 
She is beginning to be exactly like a board- 
ing-school story, for she has a father who lives 
in India, and a blind grandmother. Perhaps 
Mr. Lathrop is a pacha, or whatever they 
call them. I think he must be very grand, 
for he sent Marian some lovely rings and lots 
of other things, too. I wish he would come 
home and come to Brighton to see Marian. 
I should so love to see the re-uniun.” 

She had to stop here, as the page was full, 
but she added on the margin, “ The Seniors 
are going to take the Lit. B. Prin. I guess 
B. will think boarding-s. pretty good now.” 


CHAPTER XI 


BETH ANNE STICKS TO HER PURPOSE 

After that agreeable Saturday everything 
went very smoothly, and Beth Anne felt that 
her dreams of boarding-school were coming 
true. 

There had been two rehearsals for “The 
Little Brown Princess,” and she had been 
invited to them. 

“ You’ll make a dandy prompter,” Leila 
Thomas had told her, when she had asked 
her to come into those secret meetings in the 
Junior dormitory hall. “The girls all say 
that it’s only decent to have you, even if you 
are only a fresh ie and a green one, too ! 
Authors always have extra privileges, you 
know.” 

So Beth Anne had danced over to Jinny’s 
room on each of these delightful occasions 
and had gone with her to the meetings, where 
she made friends with all the big girls who 
167 


1 68 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


were in the play. Her ready interest in all 
that was going on about her and her delight 
in all the preparations and planning for the 
great event won the hearts of some of the 
Juniors so completely that when Mary Hall 
proposed to the others to make Beth Anne 
Burton the prompter-in-chief for all the per- 
formances, it was instantly agreed upon. 

“ It’s only fair for her to have some part in 
the fun,” declared Alice Sharp, who was 
pleased that Virginia Randolph's small friend 
had proved so popular. “ She's promised to 
get some of the costumes for us, — she says they 
are packed up at home, and she's sure her 
father would be glad for us to have them.” 

There was such a pleased murmur at this 
that Beth Anne had another happy thought. 
"‘Shan't I send for the scenery, too?” she 
asked. “ I'm sure Father would lend it, and 
I can write to George to pack it up and send 
it right away. Father painted it for us, you 
know, and it's very good and natural look- 
ing.” 

The murmur turned to applause, and a 
little wave of hand-clapping went about the 
room. To have the scenery for their play 


BETH ANNE STICKS 169 

painted especially by the well-known Mr. 
Burton was indeed a great improvement on 
the rather bare makeshifts that they had 
been expecting to employ. 

“ The castle scene is lovely,” Beth Anne 
told them, eagerly. “ You won’t have to 
spend the money for that brown-paper-muslin 
for the walls, you see, and it’s lots prettier. 
And the cottage scene for the first act is ever 
so cute. You ought to have seen Bess as the 
shepherd’s girl. She was perfectly fine.’ , 

She found that the audience were not so 
interested in hearing of the former actors as 
in learning exactly how many scenes were to 
be had, and how they were to be put in place, 
and how to be handled on the night of the 
performance. She was so eager and so happy 
in explaining how her father had arranged 
the various scenes to be used one after the 
other with the greatest ease that she did not 
even notice how her little stories of the Dra- 
matic Club’s successes fell flat among the 
Juniors of Brighton Academy. 

She went back to her own dormitory with 
Jinny, feeling in love with the whole world, 
and she babbled about the great success the 


i;o BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

play would be, and how fortunate she was to 
be allowed to have a place among its actors. 

“ I believe it'll be ever and ever so much 
better than ours was," she vowed. “ I'm pos- 
itively sure and certain that it will be a won- 
derful thing. To think of it, Jinny-pinny ! ” 
she ended breathlessly. “ To think of it, — 
my little old play being acted by the Juniors, 
with all the Seniors and the faculty looking 
on I " 

Jinny was deeply interested, too, although 
she could not be so enthusiastic as Beth 
Anne. Her more experienced eyes saw 
further than Beth Anne's bright eyes ever 
could, and she rather hesitated to echo the 
glowing predictions. 

“ It’s going to be fine," she responded, with 
a squeeze of Beth Anne’s excited little hot 
hand. “ I'm terribly proud of it myself. I 
hope all the girls learn their parts soon and 
keep on coming to rehearsals. We’ve made a 
splendid start, and if we keep it up, we’ll 
have the best Junior party that’s been given 
yet, — and that’s what we’re aiming at, you 
know." 

Beth Anne stared at her with a puckered 


BETH ANNE STICKS 


171 

brow, and then she laughed. “ Oh, you're a 
regular Clever Alice, Jinny-pinny/' she cried. 
“ Why do you want to think about things 
that will never happen ? Of course the girls 
will come to rehearsals, — they're wild over 
them. And of course they'll learn their 
parts, — this is only the second time, and you 
couldn't expect them to know them yet. Oh, 
they'll do their parts, you may be sure. Now 
come on. I've got to write home to Carline 
to get George to pack up the stuff for us. I'll 
have to be fearfully careful to explain every- 
thing so he can’t make any mistake, so you'd 
better come and help." 

The letter was soon written and dropped in 
the box at the corner of the campus, and 
Beth Anne felt that she had done all she 
could toward making the Junior play the 
great success it deserved to be. 

“ Oh, how I wish Father and Mother could 
see it, Jinny dear," she sighed as they trotted 
back to the study, chattering and planning 
all sorts of impossible things for the great 
night. “ I'd give anything almost to have 
t them see it." 

“ It would be nice," agreed Jinny, “ but it's 


172 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

only two weeks off, and they will be away for 
a whole month yet. We’ll have to do with- 
out them this trip, Babs. You can’t expect 
to have them with you at boarding-school, 
you know.” 

Beth Anne nodded and smiled, but the 
words chilled her warm thoughts, and she 
went into the little study with a less radiant 
face than she had brought from the Junior 
hall. 

“ There are two things that aren’t nice 
about it,” she said thoughtfully, as she pulled 
off her wraps and hung them up. “ I can't 
have Father and Mother here, and I’m not to 
talk to Marian about it. I wish they weren’t 
so awfully particular. I don’t see why I can’t 
tell Marian how it’s going along. They’d 
never have had the play if it hadn’t been for 
her, you know.” 

Jinny was idling about the room, shuffling 
over the magazines on the table and carelessly 
glancing at their covers. She laid them down, 
however, and looked up seriously at Beth 
Anne. 

“ Babs dear, that reminds me,” she said 
rather nervously. It was evident that she 


BETH ANNE STICKS 


l 7 3 

was speaking because she thought she ought. 
“ I want to ask you once again not to try to 
make things over. You know what I mean. 
Marian is getting along pretty well as she is, 
— she's getting acquainted with the girls that 
she will really care for, and she is ever so 
much more liked than I ever dreamed she 
could be. But don't try to force her on every 
one. They'll like her all the better if you 
don't. And ” — here she hesitated and then 
went on more rapidly — “ don't try to make us 
chum up with Beulah Whitridge and her set. 
We’ve been here longer than you have, you 
know, and there are some things we can 


Beth Anne had listened with growing 
alarm, which changed to swift indignation as 
Beulah's name was mentioned, and she flashed 
out at her dear Jinny in a most emphatic 
fashion. 

“ You're all perfectly horrid about Beulah," 
she cried. “ She's been so sweet to you, too. 
I don't see how you can be so snippy, after 
having such a good time at her spread last 
Monday, too. It's a pity that you're all so 
much alike, you serious old owls, who think 


i 7 4 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

it’s a sin to laugh ” she halted, a little 

ashamed of her unusual outbreak. “ Well, 
you’re pretty mean about her, anyway,’ 3 she 
ended, more earnestly. “ I’m not going to 
listen to you, though. I can see just as clearly 
as any Juniors, and I’m going to keep up my 
end of the thing. I’m going to be friends 
with every one.” 

She pressed her pink lips together very 
firmly and looked at Jinny with great deter- 
mination. She was not going to be dictated 
to by that young lady, even though she might 
be older and very much better acquainted 
with Brighton ways. 

Jinny looked at her for one long second, 
and then she shook her head and gave a little 
annoyed laugh. 

“ Go ahead with it, if you will,” she said 
helplessly. “ I’ve warned you. It’s not my 
fault.” 

Beth Anne was about to protest that there 
was nothing to make such a fuss about, when 
the big bell began booming across the quad- 
rangle. Jinny started, and reaching over 
touched Beth Anne gently on the shoulder. 

“ We won’t fuss over it anyway, will we, 


BETH ANNE STICKS 


*75 

Baba ? ” she said in her warmest tone. “ You 
know it's only because I want you to have 
such a good time, and I know you’re going 
to be disappointed. You can’t mix us ” 

“ Oh, don’t say any more about it,” replied 
Beth Anne hastily. “ I know how you feel 
about it, though, and I won’t force Beulah 
on you any more. I thought you were above 
listening to girls’ chatter, but I find you’re 
not. I’ll do my part. I can’t help it if you 
and Marian and the whole world back out of 
partnerships.” 

A step was heard in the hall and Jinny 
put a hand on the knob. “ I’m off,” she said, 
smiling resolutely at her friend, who was 
staring reproachfully at her. “ Come in to- 
night after dinner, — Alice and Mary will be 
there. I’ll ask Marian, if you say so.” 

Beth Anne turned to the window, and her 
voice was rather cool as she answered. “ I 
have an engagement for to-night,” she told 
Jinny. “ Perhaps Marian will wish to come ; 
you’d better ask her.” 

After the door had closed on Jinny she felt 
a sudden pang. She had been too hasty, she 
thought. Jinny was her best friend, and al- 


176 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

most her sister. She wished she had not 
turned away from her. 

44 I'll run over for a second,” she thought, 
glancing at the clock on the desk. 44 I’ve lots 
of time before the second Prep bell rings.” 

She dashed into the hall and ran into 
Beulah herself on the very threshold. 

44 You’re the very one I was coming for,” 
cried Beulah, with a gay laugh. 44 We’re 
going to have a regular spread to-night, and 
I wanted to warn you not to tell a soul ! 
Tappie might get wind of it, and she’s aw- 
fully down on our spreads, poor dear.” 

41 But she doesn’t mind, if we break up at 
study-hour and don’t make too much noise,” 
exclaimed Beth Anne in real surprise. 44 She’s 
been in our room twice herself. She never 
seemed to mind our fun a bit.” 

Beulah laughed merrily, and she pinched 
Beth Anne’s rosy cheek in a very playful and 
familiar manner. 44 What a little innocent it 
is ! And how sweetly that old fox of a Tap- 
pie has you fooled,” she said lightly. 44 Never 
mind sticking up for her, my dear. We all 
know what teachers really are. They aren't 
worth wasting time on, though. I want to 


BETH ANNE STICKS 177 

tell you what you’re to bring. Come over at 
eight exactly, and bring the comfortable from 
your bed and all the spoons and plates you 
can lay hands on without the Griffiness — beg 
your pardon, my dear, — without our dear 
Marian catching you at it.” 

“But isn’t Marian coming, too?” asked 
Beth Anne, surprised at the omission. “ We’ve 
had all our parties in the study with her 
dishes and things.” 

“ Tell her you’re coming over to study, and 
can’t be disturbed,” laughed Beulah, gaily. 
“ She’ll understand that and she’ll leave you 
alone, you may be sure. Remember, at eight, 
and bring the stuff.” 

Beth Anne, with her hand still on the knob 
of Number 19, looked after her new friend 
as she disappeared into the opposite doorway. 
“ How pretty she is,” she thought with warm 
admiration. “ How jolly, too. She’s not a 
bit stiff and conceited, like that stupid Ruth 
Stackton that Miss Carter asked me to ex- 
plain the problems to to-day. She doesn’t 
talk about other girls, either, — she’s too happy 
herself.” 

She went back, full of eagerness and pleas- 


178 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

ant anticipations again. She must choose the 
dishes that she was to borrow and smuggle 
them into her own room, as Marian must soon 
be in. She would make it up with Jinny 
later on. 

“ 111 see her after dinner/’ she said to her- 
self as she chose the prettiest spoons and gay- 
est plates from the renovated tea-table in the 
study. “ We really didn’t have any fuss, of 
course, and she was perfectly sweet when she 
left. But I don’t want her to think that I’m 
even the tiniest-teeniest little scrap cross. I’ll 
see her after dinner, for sure.” 

She got her borrowed goods, stowed in the 
comfortable from her bed, and put them in 
her own closet before her roommate appeared. 
She felt very guilty as Marian’s pleasant greet- 
ing came in to her, while she was hurriedly 
retying her ruffled ribbon and smoothing 
her tumbled curls before her dresser. 

“ There’s a talk in the chapel to-night, 
B. A. B.,” she called as she hurried to her own 
dressing. “ Miss Lee’s going to talk about 
Modern Painters, and you mustn’t miss it. 
It’s just been announced. They’re going to 
have reserved seats, so that the good girls get 


BETH ANNE STICKS 


1 79 

good seats and the wicked ones are left in 
outer darkness.” 

Beth Anne opened her eyes at herself in the 
mirror. She had never known Marian to 
chatter so. “ She’s getting livelier every day,” 
she thought, and she wagged her head at her- 
self in the glass. She knew that Marian’s 
growing spirits were greatly her own work. 
“ I guess I understand some girls pretty 
well,” she boasted to herself. “ I’m not so 
stupid as Jinny thinks me.” 

She had to tell Marian, however, that she 
could not go to Miss Lee’s talk. “ You see, 
I’ve made another engagement for to-night,” 
she said rather uneasily. “ I’d love to hear 
Miss Lee ” 

“ Why don’t you, then ? ” demanded Marian, 
appearing in the doorway, with her hair brush 
in hand. “ You’re only going over to V. 
Randolph’s room, aren’t you ? She’d rather 
go to the talk, and we can finish up our French 
verses afterward.” 

Beth Anne shook her curls. “ I’m awfully 
sorry, but I can’t go to the talk,” she said em- 
phatically. “ I’ve an engagement that I’ve 
simply got to keep. Get Jinny to go with 


i8o BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


you, — she was just in here, and she doesn’t 
know about it. You can see her now, if you’ll 
hurry.” 

Marian looked at her with a slightly puz- 
zled expression but she said, “ All right, 
I’ll run over, as soon as I’m tidy,” and went 
back to her own room, leaving Beth Anne 
feeling rather uncomfortable ; although, as she 
explained to herself, there was really no reason 
in the world why she should feel uncomfort- 
able about so small a matter. 

“ Marian will have a better time with 
Jinny,” she assured herself, as she fastened 
her tie with the little friendship circle that 
had been Jinny’s Christmas gift to her the 
year before. “ I’ll wait till they've gone down 
to the lecture and then I can get the things 
over to Beulah’s room easily. It will be a 
great deal better all around.” 

She heard Marian’s door slam and the sound 
of her footsteps die away down the hall, and 
then she went and took a peep into the closet 
where her bundle was stowed. 

“ It’s queer how sneaking I feel,” she said 
with a very puckery sort of smile. “ I’m only 
taking my own quilt and borrowing the plates 


BETH ANNE STICKS 


1 8 1 


and things that Marian told me to use when- 
ever I wanted them, but — but — I feel just 
like a thief ! ” 

She closed the door softly, and stood for a 
moment, listening to the sounds in the dor- 
mitory about her. Doors slammed, footsteps 
hurried along the hallways and crunched 
across the snow-crusted campus outside, voices 
laughed and called and protested, — in all the 
rooms and on every floor the girls were in a 
ferment of before-dinner hurry. 

Beulah’s laugh came from across the hall, 
and her door shut crisply. Beth Anne smiled 
as she listened to the light footstep going 
swiftly down the hall. 

“ She’s more fun than all the others,” she 
said, snapping off the light. “ I guess she’s 
right, too, about not telling Marian and Jinny 
every time I go over to her room, — they’d 
only feel left out. And I’m just as fond of 
Marian as I can be, and of course I love 
Jinny as much as I ever did. It’s kinder to 
them not to be always talking about some one 
else.” 

She locked the door behind her, feeling 
quite virtuous again. 


1 82 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


“ I really do love to make people happy,” 
she thought, as she ran down the long hall. 
“ It’s a great deal better for Marian and Jinny 
to go to the talk together. Marian is perfectly 
crazy over Jinny, and she always feels sort of 
shy about showing it when I’m there.” 

And so Beth Anne argued herself into the 
belief that she was doing quite the best thing 
for her friend and her roommate, as well as for 
herself, and she skipped down-stairs in the 
gayest spirits. 

“ I’ll see Jinny the moment we’re in the 
arcade,” she thought as she rose with the 
others at the end of the meal. 

But when she was in the arcade, she felt 
herself pulled by the sleeve. 

“ Come along up-stairs as soon as you can,” 
whispered Dorothy Mattern in her ear. 
“ Beulah wants us to come right up.” 

Beth Anne thrilled with eager interest. 
This was something like boarding-school life! 
There had been no secrets about the sociable 
hours in the cozy little study. Miss Tapton 
and Miss Carter had dropped in twice and 
stayed a quarter of the festive hour, and their 
presence had not been a check on the merry 


BETH ANNE STICKS 183 

talk or games. But this meeting in Beulah 
Whitridge’s room was to be something very 
different. 

“ Oh, what fun ! Fll be up in a twin- 
kling, M she whispered back, gaily, and she 
skipped up-stairs, forgetting all about Jinny 
and the Partnership and all the prosy, every- 
day things. 

She dived into her closet, thanking her 
stars that Marian was already on her way to 
the chapel with Jinny and Alice Sharp. 

“ She’s nice, of course, and she’s getting 
along wonderfully, since she’s waked up,” 
she thought, rather condescendingly, as she 
brought out the big bundle. “ But she is sort 
of prim and queer, in spite of it all. She’d 
never start any fun, and I can’t wait months 
and months for her to get limbered up.” 

She did not even know that she was trying 
to satisfy her own slightly troubled mind, as 
she went on, while she tied the bundle more 
securely. 

“ I’ll tell her and Jinny all about it when 
I get back to study-hour,” she said, feeling 
very gay and happy as she tiptoed to the 
door and closed it softly. 


1 84 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

There was no need for her cautious move- 
ments, but it gave her a delightful thrill to 
creep noiselessly across the hall and tap ever 
so lightly at the door of Number 20. It was 
so mysterious and exciting to feel that there 
was some great secret in the matter. 

Her faint tapping hardly sounded above 
the rising wind outside in the great elm trees, 
or the splutter of the electric light beside the 
door, and she thought at first that it had not 
been heard, it was so silent inside. 

She glanced at the transom. It was dark. 

“ I’m too early,” she thought, disappointed, 
and she was turning away when there was a 
rustle and the door opened a crack. Dorothy 
Mattern's face appeared in the opening. 

“ Oh, it's you,” she said. “ We thought it 
might be Tappie, — she's always nosing about 
at the wrong time. Come in.” 

And Beth Anne walked into the dim room. 


CHAPTER XII 


CONCERNING A GREAT MANY THINGS 

“ Hello, you've really come/' cried Beulah, 
with a hearty handshake. “ I was afraid 
Miss Prunes — never mind, I won't be naughty 
again, — I thought Marian might carry you 
off to lecture in spite of yourself. You've 
brought the stuff, I see. Don't turn up the 
lights, Dot, till we get the quilt over the win- 
dow. Here, Gwen, take hold and help un- 
pack B. Burton." 

Gwendolen White, a laughing, dark-eyed 
first-year girl whom Beth Anne had seen 
little of except in class and chapel, took hold 
as requested, and with Beulah's aid they soon 
untied the bundle and set out the plates and 
silver on the low table near the tiny fireplace. 

Beulah gave a low whistle when she saw 
the things. “ You've won over the Grif, — 
Marian, I mean," she said with a little laugh. 
“ How in the world did you do it without 
185 


1 86 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


inviting her to come along ? I declare if you 
haven’t brought all her very best plates and 
spoons ” 

“ They’re perfectly dandy ones, too,” added 
Gwen, with approval. “ Mother has a set of 
plates like these, and she won’t let anybody 
touch them. Does M. Lathrop roll in luxury 
like this?” and she held up an elaborate en- 
ameled spoon as she laid it on the table. 

Beth Anne had been used to beautiful 
things at home, where the value of such 
articles was not mentioned. She had thought 
Marian’s spoons and plates very attractive in- 
deed, and she had enjoyed using them, but 
she had never thought of their cost. A 
pucker came into her forehead as she watched 
Beulah and Gwendolen examine the spoon. 

“ Marian has a whole dozen of them,” she 
said, rather uneasily. She did not know why 
she felt as though she were betraying some- 
thing that her roommate would rather con- 
ceal. “ She has plenty of lovely things, — 
though they aren’t the sort of things girls 
usually have. She has that splendid rug, — 
the one that Cara Williams said belonged to 
her, Beulah, and she has ” 


CONCERNING MANY THINGS 187 

“ Ss-ssh," warned Dorothy from the window, 
where she was hanging Beth Anne's com- 
fortable. “ The light's on in Tappie's room, 
and she may pounce upon us yet." 

Beth Anne giggled with excitement as they 
all tiptoed about in the subdued light, arrang- 
ing the table, softly pulling down the shades 
and hanging the four comfortables which had 
been gathered from the bedrooms, brought 
by Gwendolen and Beth Anne. 

“ Why do you wish the windows dark ? " 
asked Beth Anne, enjoying the sense of 
mystery. “ We're allowed company for the 
whole hour, if we want it. Miss Tapton often 
comes in our rooms, and she doesn't mind 
how much we laugh and sing." 

Beulah turned to Beth Anne, as she pushed 
the last big pin in the quilt on the last win- 
dow, and she winked solemnly. 

“ Tappie is crushed on you, my dear, and 
she knows that M. Lathrop wouldn't carry 
on any high jinks worth mentioning, while 
every one can trust V. Randolph anywhere. 
She isn't half so fond of us." 

“ We’re the scapegoats for the whole hall," 
complained Dorothy, as she lighted a taper 


1 88 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


and began to move about. i: She’s down on 
us to a perfectly shocking degree, and she’s 
awfully unfair.’' 

Beulah laughed good-naturedly at her room- 
mate’s complaint. “ Don’t weep over it, Dot,” 
she cried gaily. “ We haven’t given up our 
little spreads, anyway.” 

The room was lighting up rapidly under 
Dorothy’s taper, and the candles began to 
twinkle from every possible corner, showing 
a very promising prospect. The table in the 
middle of the luxurious little study was 
heaped with cakes, candies, fruit and nuts, 
while a chafing-dish stood ready for opera- 
tions on another small stand near by. 

“ Oh, how pretty it looks ! ” cried Beth 
Anne, joyously. “ What sweet flowers and 
how good everything smells. How did you 
ever fix it up so splendidly? It’s perfectly 
beautiful ! ” 

The other three girls were pleased with 
her ready praise, although Dorothy protested 
that the room wasn’t half so jolly as it had 
been last time, and she was sure that some- 
thing would happen to spoil things before 
they were ready. 


CONCERNING MANY THINGS 189 

“ What’s the matter with you to-night ?” 
laughed Gwen White, who was fishing about 
for the cork of the alcohol bottle, which had 
fallen inside. “ We’ll send you outside as 
sentry if you trot out any more glooms. This 
is a party, and we’re going to have a good 
time.” 

Beth Anne fluttered about, examining 
and praising. Everything was perfect. The 
candies looked alluring and the fruit glowed 
temptingly. The flowers sent out a soft 
fragrance, and the fire crackled gaily, while 
the chafing-dish lamp bubbled and snapped 
its blue flame merrily up against the shining 
silver, making the water boil in no time. 

“ I don’t see how any one could make a 
fuss about all these pretty things,” she said, 
returning to the small table where Beulah 
was opening a brown-paper parcel with a 
great deal of care. “ I wish we’d thought 
to have a chafing-dish. I’m going to send 
home for Mother’s second best ” 

Beulah flung a quick glance at her, raising 
her eyebrows at Dorothy, who was busy with 
the cracker-jar. “Do you hear that, Dot?” 
she asked with a queer smile. “ B. A. Burton 


1 9 o BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

wants a chafing-dish ; shall we lend her 
ours ? ” 

Dorothy clapped the lid on the jar with 
a giggle. “Why not?” she replied. “It 
might open her eyes to her beloved Tappie’s 
real character.” 

Gwen White looked up from the can of 
mushrooms she was unscrewing. “ You 
won’t do any such thing,” she said vigor- 
ously. “ I won’t stand for it. You girls 
carry your jokes too far. Don’t you let them 
lend you the dish, B. A. They’re a pair of 
silly geese, anyway,” and she went on with 
her work, shaking her head at Beulah and 
Dorothy, who were laughing at Beth Anne’s 
puzzled face. 

“ Don’t you see, young ’un, that only the 
elect can use a chafing-dish at Brighton?” de- 
manded Beulah, merrily. “ We’re the only 
ones on this hall who are experts with the 
article, and we naturally don’t talk too much 
about it for fear the other girls may be 
jealous. That’s a hint to you, my dear.” 

Beth Anne smiled at the good-natured 
tone, but her eyes were still perplexed. She 
wondered how the three had been granted 


CONCERNING MANY THINGS 191 

their privileges in regard to the chafing-dish, 
when they were obliged to be so careful to 
conceal its use. If she had not been dazzled 
by her own rosy ideals of boarding-school life, 
she might have understood more clearly. It 
is certain that she could not have failed to see 
what Beulah was hinting at if the gay room 
had been changed to one of Miss Martha's 
cloak-rooms and if it had been Bess Hammond 
or Claire speaking instead of Beulah Whit- 
ridge. 

“ I won't tell, of course," she replied readily, 
her admiration for Beulah making her very 
dull for once. “ It's lovely that you are al- 
lowed to have it, anyway, and I'm going to 
help work it. I can cook lots of things. 
Mother taught me, and we girls often make 
welsh-rabbit and fudge and panned oysters for 
the G. S. C., — when we have plenty of money 
in the treasury and haven't any company." 

Beulah had heard something of the Gym 
Saturdays and of Bess and Claire and the rest 
of them, and she was too busy with her brown- 
paper parcel just then to reply, but Gwen 
White asked Beth Anne a question or two 
about the G. S. C. and their doings, and Beth 


i 9 2 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

Anne was soon started off on an enthusiastic 
account of the fun the Club had together. 

Gwen listened with real interest, but Dor- 
othy, who was plainly not in the happiest 
frame of mind, made a good many comments 
that were rather disturbing to Beth Anne. 

“ Don't you have any dances ? " she asked, 
crumpling the empty cracker-bags and tossing 
them on the fire to watch them blaze. “ You 
have plenty of boys." 

“ We do dance when there isn't much else 
to do," admitted Beth Anne. “ But you see, 
we have the Dramatic Club, and the Sewing 
Class for the farmers’ daughters once a week, 
and the Gym Saturdays almost every week, 
and there’s always skating, or coasting, or 
picnics, or quarry-hunts or something. We 
dance only at the dancing class and at the 
parties where there are grown-ups. The boys 
won’t bother, you see, when there’s anything 
else to do." 

“They’re all alike, I guess," agreed Gwen 
White, cheerfully. “ I don’t know a boy who 
likes dancing. We gave up having parties at 
home just on that account." 

Beth Anne was rather glad when the oys- 


CONCERNING MANY THINGS 193 

ters, — which Beulah’s carefully covered parcel 
had contained, — were simmering among the 
mushrooms in the chafing-dish and ail hands 
became intent on the cookery. 

Beulah showed a good bit of skill in the 
matter. She handled the spoon with the ease 
of long practice, she ordered the toast to be 
brought from the fireside where it had been 
keeping warm, and she served the delectable 
dish to each in turn with a grace that made 
Beth Anne even more ardent in her admir- 
ation. 

“ You do everything so splendidly,” she 
whispered to her while the others were laugh- 
ing at some joke of Gwen White’s. “ You 
and Jinny are ever so much alike. She's as 
clever as she can be, too.” 

Beulah seemed much pleased by this trib- 
ute. She knew it to be a very high one. 
V. Randolph stood at the head of her classes 
and was a general favorite as well as being 
the prettiest girl among the Juniors. 

“ Thanks awfully,” she laughed. “ I’ll 
have to go some to live up to that speech. 
She wouldn’t thank you for it, though. She’s 
not particularly daffy over me, you know.” 


i 9 4 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

Beth Anne was too truthful to deny this 
flatly. Jinny’s words as to the fascinating 
Beulah were too fresh in her ears. “ She’ll 
just love you when she really-for-truly knows 
you,” she said earnestly. “ I wish you’d be 
as nice to her as you can. I do so want you 
to be friends, — real friends.” 

Beulah promised readily enough. She was 
very good-natured. “ I’ll chum up as much 
as I can, since you seem to think she’ll put 
up with me,” she told Beth Anne with 
her gay laugh. “ We’ll make a team yet. 
Have some more of the gooey stuff, B. A., — 
it’s good for the complexion, and you didn’t 
eat much dinner. Gwen, hand around the 
crackers again, and give me some of the toast, 
Dot. I’m simply famished to-night.” 

They settled down around the fireside with 
their plates in their laps, and Beth Anne 
began to enjoy herself more and more every 
minute. “ There isn’t anything wrong about 
them,” she thought, with a little thrill of 
exultation at her own superior judgment. 
“ They’re jolly and they joke a lot, but they’re 
really awfully kind and nice. I’ll tell Jinny 
all about it to-morrow.” 


CONCERNING MANY THINGS 195 

Beulah was pounding softly on the cushion 
at her side. “ Come now, it's time to begin 
the gabble act,” she said, pointing her fork at 
Beth Anne. “ B. A., I select you to tell a 
funny story. One minute by the clock. Fire 
away.” 

Beth Anne giggled with merriment but she 
could not think of anything funny to save 
her neck. But she gave them the old story 
about Miss Carrie and her diamond engage- 
ment ring, which the Captain had been so 
pleased with, and they smiled politely at it. 
It was evidently very far from funny to them. 

“ Your turn next, Dot,” pointed Beulah, 
and Dorothy told a tale of a Scotchman and a 
little pig, that made Beth Anne laugh very 
heartily. 

Gwen White had a story from the weekly, 
which Beth Anne remembered after it was 
told, and then Beulah had her turn. 

“ Fse a pore oV man from Mississip,” she 
began, in genuine negro tones, and she had 
the three of them convulsed from the begin- 
ning. The story of the automobile made 
from a buggy with the aid of a can of kero- 
sene had been taken from a book of negro tales 


196 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

by a well-known writer, but it had lost noth- 
ing in the change, and Beulah’s perfect imita- 
tion of the old negro made it irresistible. 

When it was over Beth Anne wiped her 
streaming eyes and sighed out between her 
gasps of laughter, “ Oh, Beulah Whitridge, 
you’re perfectly wonderful ! I never heard 
anything like you. I wish Carline could 
hear you.” 

Beulah laughed easily. It was plain that 
conceit was not one of her besetting sins. “ I 
lived two years in ole Virginny, at a horrid 
school,” she answered carelessly. “ I got the 
dialect down fine, didn’t I ? Gwen’s good on 
the Irish, if she takes the trouble. You’ll 
hear her next time.” 

Dorothy was listening to the sounds from 
the quadrangle. “ They’re coming out of 
chapel,” she said. “ We’d better finish the 
rest of the things double quick, or they’ll be 
on us, hammer and tongs.” 

Beth Anne looked longingly at the gleaming 
fruit and inviting nuts, but she shook her 
head. “ It’s too soon after dinner, I guess,” 
she said ruefully. “ I just can’t eat another 
thing.” 


CONCERNING MANY THINGS 19 7 

Gwen was fingering her bit of unfin- 
ished toast. “ Oh, pshaw, it's too early to 
bother with all these good things,” she said, 
tossing the toast into the fire, where it hissed 
and spluttered on the logs. “ Let’s have an- 
other meeting and finish up the goodies. How 
about to-morrow night, — they’ll all keep per- 
fectly well till then, — and in my room. It’s 
farther down the hall and the estimable Tap- 
pie won’t be snooping so near by.” 

Beulah and Dorothy applauded softly. 
“ The very thing,” they agreed. “ You can 
get away from your room all right, B. A., 
can’t you? We won’t be long, you know. 
We’ll stick to rules and have all lights out at 
the regular time.” 

Beth Anne opened her eyes. “ Do you 
mean to have it later?” she asked, in sur- 
prise. “ I thought we had to keep to our 
rooms after study-hour.” 

The three looked at each other and laughed 
gently. 

“ Oh, my dear B. A.,” cried Beulah, “ what 
a strict little suspicious puss you are ! You 
think we’re going to break all sorts of rules 
and stay up terribly late, and your precious 


198 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

eyes almost pop out of your pretty head. But 
you needn’t worry, — we’re doing nothing out 
of the way. All we’re going to do is to run 
over to Gwen’s room, just at the end of study- 
hour, and stay a minute or two, and before 
the last bell rings w r e’ll be safe and snug in our 
little beds, like all the rest of the good girls.” 

Beth Anne beamed with relief. She re- 
membered that Jinn}^ had run over to her 
room once or twice between study and last 
period, and she felt quite sure that it was all 
as Beulah said. 

“ I was so afraid I’d have to miss it,” she 
said ardently. “ And I’ve had such a good 
time to-night. I’ll simply love to come.” 

Beulah had sprung up and was busy gather- 
ing up the plates and other things. “ To- 
morrow night at about nine o’clock,” she re- 
torted, “ and be sure you bring a good appetite 
and some funny stories with you. Never 
mind helping with the dishes and stuff. Dot 
and I will manage, — we’re used to it. You 
two had better clear out.” 

Beth Anne took up Marian’s plates, which 
had not been used after all. Gwen gathered 
up her share of goods, while Beulah, switch- 


CONCERNING MANT THINGS 199 

ing off the lights, lifted Beth Anne's com- 
fortable from the near-by window. 

“ You’d better trot double quick, if you 
don’t want to be spotted,” she said. “ The 
girls are beginning to come in down-stairs 
and you’ll get snapped up like a shot if you 
run into Tappie with this outfit.” 

She pushed Beth Anne out into the hall- 
way, laughing at her efforts to make haste, 
while the trailing quilt and the bulky bundle 
of plates and silver were sorely in the way. 

“ You look like a regular burglar, B. A.,” 
she laughed, as Beth Anne, with her burden 
propped against the study door, groped for 
the keyhole of Number 19. “ You’re awfully 
slow. Hurry, hurry ! ” 

She was laughing still as she closed the 
door of her own room and Beth Anne heard 
her laughing as she found the keyhole and 
gained the inside of the little study. 

“ She’s awfully jolly and nice,” she thought, 
as she closed the door behind her. “ I don’t 
see why Jinny doesn’t like her more.” 

She gave a start as she saw that Marian’s 
door was ajar and a ray of light streamed 
out. “ She must have come in early,” she 


200 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


thought in a flutter. “ I wonder what she’ll 
think of my taking the dishes. Oh, I wish 
she had stayed away a minute longer.” 

Marian’s door swung almost shut and her 
voice called out sharply, “Is that you, B. A.?” 

Beth Anne's answer was rather muffled, for 
she was putting her burden of borrowed goods 
carefully on the table, while the quilt still 
hung about her shoulders. She expected Ma- 
rian to come into the study at any moment, 
and was surprised to find that she had time 
to place the dishes and spoons in their usual 
places and to throw the quilt on her own bed 
before Marian called to her again. 

“ Come on in, B. A.,” she called pleasantly. 
“ I’m looking over the crown jewels, as you 
call them. Don’t you want a peep? ” 

Beth Anne was always glad to see pretty 
things, and she ran into Marian’s room with 
a very bright look on her face. She had 
made up her mind the instant that Marian 
had spoken that she would tell her all about 
the borrowed things and she began as soon as 
she was on the threshold. 

“ I took your plates and a few of your 
spoons over for a little spread in Beulah’s 


CONCERNING MANY THINGS 201 


room just now,” she burst out, eagerly. “ You 
don’t mind, do you ? ” 

Marian was at the bureau with the jewel 
cases and she looked up with a quick, search- 
ing look. She seemed about to say something 
sharp, but after a glance at Beth Anne’s glow- 
ing face, she changed her mind, and her lips 
softened into a pleasant smile. 

“ I told you they were yours as much as 
mine,” she said simply. “ It’s very, decent of 
you to tell me about the spread. I’m glad 
you did. I was sort of afraid you mightn’t.” 

Beth Anne was so pleased by this generous 
acceptance of her confession that she was 
hardly conscious of surprise at Marian’s last 
words. But she looked rather inquiringly at 
her roommate, who laughed and shook her 
head at her teasingly. 

“I knew where you were going all the 
time, B. A.,” she said gaily. “ I didn’t want 
to go, — oh, no, I wasn’t a bit hurt about it. 
I knew you were going over there and I was 
hoping you’d tell me about it some time. I 
didn’t think you’d do it right away. It’s — 
it’s awfully square of you, for you know you 
hadn’t any real need to tell me.” 


202 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


Beth Anne was overcome by this magnani- 
mous view of her conduct. It was very dif- 
ferent from what she had expected and from 
what she would have received from most 
girls, and she realized how much she had 
misjudged her roommate. 

“ Oh, Marian, please don't praise me for 
telling you," she said with a blush. “I was 
awfully near not saying a word about it." 

Marian laughed again and threw back her 
head with a proud little gesture. “ Don't 
fool yourself that way, B. A.," she said. 
41 You couldn’t be sneaking and mean if you 
tried." 

Beth Anne flew to Marian's side and flung 
an arm about her, but she blushed still more 
and hung her head, as she protested that she 
wasn't half so nice as Marian believed her, 
and to please, please not to think her too 
good. 

“ For you know I'll be so uncomfortable 
when I’m not telling you everything," she 
explained earnestly and still blushing very 
much. “ And I don't think, — I really-for- 
truly don't think I shall tell you everything ." 

She looked so sweet and so serious that 


CONCERNING MANY THINGS 203 

Marian had to laugh again and drawing her 
near, she kissed her very heartily. 

“ There, B. A., that’s to show that we’re 
friends for sure,” she told her. “ Now, we 
aren’t going to fash our heads about it any 
more. See, I’ve taken out the rings just 
specially for you to see. Aren’t they lovely 
in this twinkly light?” 

Beth Anne’s blushes faded slowly, for she 
was thinking of her promise for to-morrow 
night and wondering if she should be able to 
confess that also without betraying the other 
girls ; but it was a difficult question and the 
rings were very alluring. So she put the 
promise aside and gave her whole attention 
to the rings. 

“ Oh, aren’t they lovely ? ” she echoed 
fervently, watching them sparkle on Marian’s 
brown fingers. “ I’ve always loved rings so — 
so —famishingly ! I used to simply adore any 
kind of trash. Do you know,” she lowered 
her tone to hushed confession, “ when I was 
very little I used to buy those penny rings 
with the emeralds and sapphires in them 
and wear them in the playroom, just like a 
princess. They seemed very beautiful to me,” 


204 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

she ended absently, “for I was always just 
aching for lots of flashing rings, and of course 
I couldn’t have them.” 

“ Didn’t you ever have any at all ? ” asked 
Marian, watching her with thoughtful eyes. 
“ I should think you might have had a tiny 
one, just to make you feel happy.” 

Beth Anne was quick to defend her 
mother’s good taste in denying her the 
adornments she craved. “ Oh, I had a little 
plain gold band, but I lost it in the snow a 
couple of weeks after I got it, and Mother 
thought it wasn’t much use to get me any 
more, particularly when she knew I didn’t 
care awfully much for it,” she replied se- 
riously. “ I’ve never asked for a ring since 
then. I’ve forgotten about it most of the 
time. Bess and the others don’t bother with 
rings yet.” 

Marian looked at her own brown hands. 
“ I never thought about such things either,” 
she said. “ But I’ve always been plain, you 
know. Do you suppose your mother would 
let you wear a class ring when we get ours? 
I think I’ll have one of them myself.” 

“Oh, I guess I could have a ring like that 


CONCERNING MANY THINGS 205 

if I asked,” Beth Anne answered easily. “ I’m 
growing up all the time now, and I think I’ll 
write to Mother pretty soon about it. Are 
you going to get out the miniature now? ” 

She felt rather proud of herself when she 
laid down the fascinating rings and turned to 
the painting, for it always cost her a pang to 
deny herself the joy of slipping the flashing 
circlets on her small fingers. She did not 
know how clearly her fac9 showed her regret 
as she laid the tempting treasures in their 
satin bed and snapped the lid of the box upon 
them. 

“ I guess we’ll have to do our algebra pretty 
soon,” she said in a moment. “ Last bell will 
ring before we know it.” 

Marian glanced at the clock and gave an 
exclamation of dismay. “ Whew, we’ll have 
to jump, for sure ! ” she cried. “ I'll put 
away these things afterward, — it’s a nuisance 
to burrow down in that great trunk. Here, 
B. A., take my books and I’ll put the boxes 
in the desk while we’re studying. I’d rather 
have them where I can see them while they’re 
not locked up.” 

Beth Anne took up the two books from the 


206 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

chair where Marian had thrown them and led 
the way into the study, where she cleared a 
place on the desk. 

“ You sit here, and I'll take the table to- 
night,” she offered. “ I haven’t much to do.” 

They went at their tasks in silence and 
when the last bell sounded Marian was still 
at work. 

“ Go on into your room, B. A.,” she in- 
sisted. “ I’ll switch off the lights and take 
my things back to my room. We don’t want 
any demerits for lights-after-hours, and Miss 
Tapton will be up on the very dot.” 

Beth Anne paused with her books and 
papers in her hands, and then she ran back 
and stooped over Marian. 

“ I’m going to kiss you good-night from 
now on,” she announced, with an emphatic 
nod. “ We’re real friends now, Marian, aren’t 
we? ” 

Marian smiled up at her as she gathered up 
her books and the jewel boxes from the open 
desk. The ring box fell open and showed 
the two circles sparkling in the light and 
Beth Anne gave them one last long look. 

“ How beau ” she began, when a step 


CONCERNING MANY THINGS 207 

that they both recognized sounded at the far 
end of the hall. 

The last strokes of the last bell were just 
dying away. 

“ Snap off the light, B. A., and skip," com- 
manded Marian. 

And Beth Anne obeyed her promptly. 


CHAPTER XIII 


NEWS AND GOSSIP 

Beth Anne was glad that she had broken 
the ice and told Marian about the spread. 

“ IT1 ask Beulah if I may bring her in to- 
night, M she thought as she hurried toward the 
recitation hall after second period the next 
morning. “ She's getting to be almost jolly, 
and she's as bright and funny as any one, — 
now that she's really-for-truly friends with 
me. I don't see how she ever kept herself so 
stiff and prim so long." 

She sighed with satisfaction as she thought 
of the scene in Marian's room last night. 
“ She's just as generous as any one can be," 
she said to herself. “ I just didn’t under- 
stand her before. I’m going to ask her to 
take Beulah and Gwen coasting with us this 
afternoon, and I do hope sheTl keep on being 
gay and nice. I'd love them to see how bright 
she really is." 


208 


NEWS AND GOSSIP 


209 

She smiled to herself as she skipped along. 
The air was crisp and bracing and the sky 
was a serene blue arch overhead. Jinny had 
smiled her good-morning to her as usual. 
The little tangles which had perplexed her 
yesterday were all gone, and she was happy 
in the certainty of good times to come. 

She saw Gwen White and Beulah coming 
through the dormitory gateway, and she 
waved a gay greeting to them across the 
expanse of snowy campus. Marian Lathrop 
was crossing the drive from the library door, 
and she hailed her eagerly. The opportunity 
seemed made for her. 

“ Oh, Marian, won't you ask them to coast 
with us ? ” she asked, joining her roommate 
and falling quickly into step. “ Dorothy's in 
quarantine for a cold this morning, and we 
can have a splendid time." 

She knew that Marian's chief objection to 
her project would be the company of Dorothy, 
who, as Beulah's roommate, was included in 
most of her doings, and she felt that the cold 
which was going the rounds among the girls 
just then was not so much of an infliction 
after all. 


210 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

Marian’s ready assent brought out the dim- 
ples in her rosy cheeks. “ You’re getting to 
like them a little, aren’t you? ” she bubbled, 
and Marian did not deny it. 

Beth Anne swung along, chattering hap- 
pily. The rosy haze was thicker than ever. 

“ You’re really-for-truly friendly in your 
heart,” she told Marian with a toss of her 
curls and a pleased giggle at her own sharp- 
sightedness. “ If you’d only let it out ! ” and 
then her eye caught the disappearing figures 
and she slipped her hand into Marian’s arm. 
“ Come on, let's catch up and ask them now,” 
she urged. 

“ All right,” replied Marian briefly, and 
to Beth Anne’s surprise, she pressed her arm 
down on the hand and sped off toward the 
two girls. 

“ My, you can run ! ” Beth Anne managed 
to gasp out, j ust as they reached Beulah and 
Gwen White. “ I never dreamed you could 
go so fast.” 

“ I used to run last summer,” replied Ma- 
rian and then she nodded to Beulah and Gwen 
with the stiff little nod that was so character- 
istic of her. 


NEWS AND GOSSIP 


21 I 


“ Will you come and coast with V. Randolph 
and us this afternoon ? ” she asked in her 
calmest voice. “ We are going over to the 
hill at first recreation period.” 

Beulah showed her little white teeth in a 
pleased smile. She liked to be popular be- 
yond all things, and although she still 
laughed at Marian when Beth Anne or Jinny 
were not there she was glad to accept a seat 
on the highly esteemed Comet. Whatever 
Beulah did was a matter of course to Gwen 
White, and the four girls parted at the door of 
recitation hall, promising to meet at three 
o'clock. 

Beth Anne's lessons were very easy to her 
that afternoon, and the time went smoothly 
for her. Three o'clock came unusually soon, 
and she danced off from history class to get 
her coasting outfit the very minute the bell 
sounded on Miss Carter’s desk. 

She found them all waiting for her when 
she arrived at the top of the long hill, and 
they seemed to be unusually gay. Beth Anne 
waved her hand to them eagerly as she trotted 
over the snow toward them. 

“ Isn't it fine weather for coasting ? " she 


2 12 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


called as soon as she was within ear-shot of 
them. “ We shan't have another day like 
this soon. ,, 

But no one seemed at all interested in the 
weather. They were discussing something 
much more important, and Beulah was chat- 
ting earnestly with Marian and just as intent 
as if she were her dearest friend. 

“ Heard the news ? ” she said, before Beth 
Anne had quite reached them. “ The Sports 
Committee had a secret meeting at noon recess 
to-day and they've made up the final lists. 
All the teams are chosen ” 

“ And Beulah's in charge of the running 
team," cried Gwen, “ and V. Randolph is to 
make the design for the posters and invita- 
tions, and " 

“ And M. Lathrop is on 440 first-year 
dash," broke in Jinny, with a merry peal at 
Beth Anne's astonished gasp. “ Alice Sharp 
saw her speeding across the campus this morn- 
ing and she voted her right in among the 
sprinters. Didn't you, Alice?" she called to 
the Junior, who was swinging her sled into 
line just behind them, and who had heard 
the last sentences. 


NEfVS AND GOSSIP 


213 

“ I voted for her, yes, but it was V. Ran- 
dolph who first put her name up for the 
Sports/' called back Alice, as she dropped to 
her seat. 

Beth Anne was bubbling with delight. 

“ Oh, Marian, how splendid ! ” she cried 
warmly. “ It's almost as good as being on one 
of the teams myself. Maybe they'll let me 
come to the practices with you, too. Do you 
think they will, Beulah ? " 

Beulah laughed back at her from her seat 
just ahead. “ Sure thing, B. A., or I'll resign 
my job," she declared gaily. “ Push off, 
Gwen, we’re all ready." 

They went down the shining descent with a 
flying sweep, passing the other sleds as usual 
and winding up breathless and glowing at the 
end of the course. Beth Anne’s blood was 
dancing in her veins and her cheeks were 
tingling with excitement. She gave Jinny a 
little squeeze as they tumbled off the big sled 
together. 

“ Oh, Jinny-pinny, I just love Brighton," 
she whispered. “ What a lot of fun we're hav- 
ing, aren't we ? " 

Jinny nodded. “ It's a good bit nicer now 


2 14 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

you’re here,” she replied loyally. “ I wish 
we could always be together, Babs.” 

Beth Anne opened her blue eyes to their 
widest as she took the rope. “ Why, we’re 
always going to be together, and you know 
it, Jinny Randolph,” she said impressively. 
“ I feel it in my bones that we’ll never, never, 
never be away from each other again. In the 
summer time we’ll be home and in the win- 
ters we’ll be here ” 

“Oh, but you won't want to come back 
again, surely,” cried Jinny, as they plodded 
up-hill with the glistening Comet in their 
wake, and the others trudging on ahead. 
“ You’ll find out that it’s heaps and heaps 
nicer at home after you get over the first fun 
of getting acquainted here.” 

Beth Anne stopped quite still on the hill, 
regardless of the flying sleds and plodding 
crowds about them. 

“ I want to tell you, Miss Virginia Ran- 
dolph, that I’ll always like Brighton tremen- 
dously,” she declared very emphatically. “ I 
know most of the girls that are worth know- 
ing, and I know them pretty well. Nothing 
is going to change my mind, and that’s the 


NEWS AND GOSSIP 


215 

end of it. I've been here more than two 
weeks, and that’s time enough to know how 
I’m going to feel for ever and ever.” 

Jinny gave a little chuckle at her earnest- 
ness, but she did not answer, knowing well 
that Beth Anne would only grow more posi- 
tive, and, as Beulah dropped behind to lend 
a hand with the sled, there was no more talk 
on the matter. 

They had a jolly hour among the gay 
throngs on the hill, and the Comet grew in 
popularity every time it sped down the long 
hill. Marian, in her dull brown hat and dull 
gray sweater, became as much of a center of 
interest as Beulah Whitridge herself, although 
in a very different way. 

“ When a girl’s been a regular hermit, it’s 
fun to see her coming out into the world, like 
that roommate of yours, ’’said Mary Hall to Beth 
Anne as they were standing together watching 
the Comet tear away down the slope. 

“ M. Lathrop has changed somehow, lately,” 
went on Mary. “ She used to look like a 
regular lemon, while that chirpy little Cara 
Williams girl was here. My word ! that was 
a girl for you ! She was perfectly crazy over 


2 1 6 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


herself — and she stuffed the girls with all 
sorts of tales about her family. I knew them 
at home, and she didn't trouble me, being a 
fresliie, but how she did fool Beulah Whit- 
ridge and that set ! " 

Beth Anne was all eagerness. “ Do tell me 
about her," she cried. “ I've heard some- 
thing, of course, but Marian won’t say a word, 
and I've wondered myself sick about her 
sometimes. She was very clever and rich and 
pretty, wasn't she ? " 

Mary chuckled. “ She was clever, all 
right," she admitted. “ But she was a regu- 
lar little sham, and I guess your Lathrop girl 
had a time of it with her, if she's any- 
thing like her older sister at home. People 
who brag so much usually have to do it, to 
make up for what they don't have. Cara was 
a conceited clever little monkey, and you 
couldn't trust a word she said." 

“ But why didn't you tell the girls?" cried 
Beth Anne in astonishment at this indiffer- 
ence. “ She made them all think she was 
wonderful and poor Marian was no good. 
Why didn't you show them that she was such 
a fraud ? " 


NEWS AND GOSSIP 217 

Mary Hall shrugged her shoulders. “ No, 
thank you, my dear, I don't care to have my 
fingers burned," she replied easily. “ Let 
them all' find out for themselves. That's 
what boarding-school is for, — to teach you to 
keep your eyes open. If you can't tell the 
fakes from the real ones, you deserve all you 
get." 

Beth Anne was greatly troubled by this 
cool way of looking at it. She would have 
liked to rush about among the girls, pro- 
claiming Cara Williams an impostor and a 
sham on the spot and refuting all the slights 
and suspicions that Marian had suffered at 
her hands. This easy way of slipping out 
maddened her. 

Mary Hall did not notice her agitation. 
She turned away to join her own party and 
Beth Anne was left, hopping on one foot, and 
tossing her curls in burning impatience to 
right this great injustice. She attacked Jinny, 
who was the first to come gaily up the slope. 

44 What do you think Mary Hall told me?" 
she demanded breathlessly. 44 It's a perfect 
shame, and I'm going to tell them right 
straight off ” 


2 1 8 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


" What is it, first ? ^ interrupted Jinny, 
who knew that second thoughts were often 
better for Beth Anne. “ Tell me, and then 
we can see about it. If it’s as horrid as you 
look, we’d best not spoil the rest of the time. 
We’ve only ten minutes now.” 

Beth Anne exploded. “ To think that 
Mary Hall knew that Cara Williams was a 
perfect fibber and never let on ! ” she cried 
with flashing eyes. “ To think she’d let Marian 
be persecuted and Beulah and all the rest of 
them fooled and that she wouldn’t say a word for 
fear of having trouble ! Oh, Jinny Randolph, 
I never dreamed she could be so mean.” 

Jinny puckered her brow, but did not ap- 
pear much surprised or distressed. “ Don’t 
you fret about Mary Hall, Babs,” she said 
soothingly. “ Lots of the nicest girls here 
are like that, — they want to have an easy 
time ; and if you go about telling everything 
you know, you’re bound to get into trouble 
with some one. Did she say she knew for sure 
that the little Williams girl was fooling them?” 

Beth Anne told her all Mary Hall had said, 
and to her surprise Jinny only smiled. “ I’m 
glad we found out that your M. Lathrop is all 


NEWS AND GOSSIP 


219 

right after all,” she said with great satisfac- 
tion. “ There were some queer stories about 
her that didn't seem to go with what I've 
seen of her recently. I suppose they were 
some of Miss Cara's work.'' 

Beth Anne was still ablaze with righteous 
indignation. “ I'm going to tell them all 
right away,” she declared, glancing toward 
the trio coming up with the Comet. “ They 
ought to know it this very minute ! ” 

Jinny checked her as she was rushing off. 
“ Don't do it now,” she urged. “ It’ll only 
make Marian feel queer to have those stories 
of her stinginess and temper raked up before 
them all. Wait a bit, and do it gradually.” 

Beth Anne, although throbbing with wrath 
against the unpunished Cara, had to see the 
wisdom of this. 

She found the last ten minutes of their 
frolic by far the happiest part of the hour, 
and she was very glad that Jinny had been 
wise enough to urge her to wait. She danced 
up-hill with the gorgeous Comet and she 
squealed with delight as they flew down the 
slippery incline, and altogether, she had the 
gayest time that any one could wish. 


220 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


“ I’ve something very important to tell 
you,” she whispered to Marian, as they came 
up for the last time. “ Don't wait for the 
others. They can come along when they 
please. I’ll help you put away the sled in 
a jiffy.” 

She hurried her off before Marian could 
protest, and when they were a few steps on 
their way she broke out with her news. 

“ I've found out that Cara Williams was a 
regular fibber, and that she isn't half she let 
on to the girls . that she was,” she began 
eagerly. “ Oh, Marian, aren’t you glad that 
Mary Hall told me about her? Beulah will 
see how she's been fooled now, and she won't 
think you're queer and stingy and all that 
any more ” 

Marian's look halted her in the midst of 
her outburst. 14 Did Beulah Whitridge say 
that I was all that? ” she demanded sharply. 

Beth Anne groaned at her own blunder. 
“ Oh, I didn't mean to say quite that,” she 
protested. “Beulah never said all that, but you 
know the girls have all thought — well, they’ve 
seen that you didn't like them and that you 
wouldn't make friends, and so they couldn't 


NEWS AND GOSSIP 


221 


help believing some of the fibs that Cara 
Williams told about you.” 

She felt she was making a mess of it, but she 
floundered on bravely, trying to patch up mat- 
ters as best she could. “ About the rug, you 
know, and — and — other things. Oh, Marian, 
I’m so glad that it's cleared up. I’ve been so 
mixed up about it I ” 

Marian was much less excited than she had 
expected. “ I always knew she was a silly 
goose,” she said rather contemptuously. “ I 
didn’t know she told out-and-out lies, but I 
knew she was tricky. She had to leave, you 
know, because she’d cribbed Miss Tapton’s 
algebra key and was using it right along. No 
one knew it, I guess ” 

“ But she went to California with her 
family,” protested Beth Anne. “ She wasn’t 
expelled, really she wasn’t. Beulah told me 
she hated to go, but she had to be with her 
mother who was sick.” 

“ Stuff and nonsense,” retorted Marian, 
more warmly. “ She was going to be expelled, 
and Miss Tapton got her off. She came into 
my rooms and they talked it over while we 
both were there.” 


222 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

Beth Anne's face underwent another change. 
“ I’m going to tell Beulah how much mis- 
taken she’s been in that, too,” she cried, and 
was about to rush off in search of the others 
when Marian stopped her. 

“ You can’t tell them anything about that,” 
she said firmly. “ It’s a secret, and I hadn’t 
any right to tell. It would be dreadful for me 
if you told. Promise me,” she went on hold- 
ing fast Beth Anne’s coat, “ promise me you’ll 
never breathe a word of it to any one.” 

Beth Anne promised, of course, but she was 
disappointed, and she did not speak again 
while they were putting the sled into its 
nook in the dormitory basement. She walked 
along beside Marian with a rather subdued 
air and went up-stairs without even a glance 
behind her at the groups hurrying back from 
the coasting ground. 

Marian glanced at her from time to time 
when they were in the study again, and at 
last she cleared her throat nervously. 

“ I want to ask a favor of you,” she began, 
hesitating at Beth Anne’s eager look. 

“ I’ll do anything you ask,” Beth Anne re- 
plied, kindling again with the hope that Ma- 


NEWS AND GOSSIP 


223 

rian had more disclosures to make. “ I'll 
never, never tell, either.” 

But Marian's request was not at all what 
she had expected. 

“ I wish you'd come over to meet the four- 
ten to-morrow night,” she said earnestly. 
“ I wish you'd promise not to let anything stop 
you from coming.” 

Beth Anne looked puzzled. “ The four- 
ten ? ” she asked, surprised at the request. 
0 Why do you wish me to meet the four-ten 
train? Aren't you going to be here your- 
self?” 

Marian smiled, and there was a gaiety in 
her look that was baffling to Beth Anne, who 
could not understand why the four-ten train 
should be a joke. 

“ I'm coming back on it to-morrow,” she 
explained, trying to hide the growing elation 
of her manner under a stiffness that was 
plainly forced. “ I'm coming out on that 
train, and I'll count on you to meet me.” 

Beth Anne was mystified, but Marian's 
manner gave her to understand that some- 
thing pleasing was to be expected. 

“ I'll come, of course,” she said. “ I didn’t 


224 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

know you were going away, though. When 
did you make up your mind ? ” 

“ Just a little while ago,” answered Marian, 
smiling. “ That letter came in the noon 
mail, and I had to ask permission. I’m go- 
ing on the five-thirty, so I’ll have to hurry.” 

She said no more about her trip and Beth 
Anne was too deeply interested in other 
things at that moment to wonder at her room- 
mate’s peculiarities. She found a letter on 
the study table and was examining it eagerly. 

“ Bess says that they’re going to have a 
skating carnival on the lake at Stepping 
Stones as soon as the ice is ready, — they’ve 
had it flooded,” she exclaimed, coming to Ma- 
rian’s door with her letter, “ and they’ve had 
two big coasting parties with bonfires and hot 
chocolate and horses to pull the sled up-hill. 
Mr. Van Meter just loves us all to have a good 
time,” she explained, watching Marian with 
rather absent eyes. “ They are going to have 
an indoors rink next year, so we can skate 
whether it snows or not.” 

“ You must have a splendid time at home 
with all of them,” commented Marian rather 
wistfully. “ They seem to be very jolly.” 


NEWS AND GOSSIP 


225 

Beth Anne's face glowed. “Oh, we have 
the best times in the world ! ” she said, warmly. 
“ I don't believe there's another place where 
they have so much fun as we do at Center- 
ville. We're all chums, you know, and 
we've known each other for years and years, 
and ” 

Marian went on with her preparations but 
her eyes had that same hungry look that had 
been in them before. “ I wish Centerville 
wasn't so far away," she said. “ I'd love to 
ask the G* S. C. over for one of our Saturday 
afternoons. Do you think they'd come, 
B. A.?" 

Beth Anne's answer was interrupted by a 
knock at the door. The maid who was to 
take Marian and her large suit-case to the 
station was waiting in the hall, and there was 
a scramble and flurry to get Marian off in 
time. 

Beth Anne watched her going swiftly along 
the snowy avenue beyond the big elms. 

“ I wonder why in the world she wishes me 
to meet her ? " she thought. “ She certainly 
is getting more different every day." 


CHAPTER XIV 


BETH ANNE MAKES AN ENEMY 

Beth Anne sat down to her weekly letter 
to the Club with a good deal of enjoyment 
that evening while she was waiting for Gwen 
and Beulah to come. 

“ IPs too bad Jinny said she felt shivery, 
and had to go into infirmary after dinner,” 
she said as she opened her inkstand. “ I 
hope she isn't going to have that horrid 
cold.” 

She set to work with a will and she 
scribbled on easily, stopping now and then 
to smile at what she had written. She 
slipped the stamps into the letter before she 
sealed it and she smiled a triumphant little 
smile as she rubbed the envelope flap smooth 
with thumb and finger. 

“ There, Mr. Ben and Mr. Francie, you’re 
wrong for another week,” she said gaily. “ I 
226 


AN ENEMT 


227 

guess you'll think pretty well of boarding- 
school after you read that." 

A knock on the door made her start for- 
ward eagerly. 

Gwen White was standing outside when 
she opened it, and she had something huddled 
in her arms. 

“ I'm early, but I thought I'd better come 
over right away," she told Beth Anne as she 
came in. “ They're snapping up girls right 
and left with that old cold and I was afraid 
I might clear my throat or something when I 
wasn't thinking, and then I'd be locked up 
till further notice. My, how warm and nice 
it is in here. Do you always have a fire? 
What a ducky old desk. Is it yours ? And 
where did you land those cute etchings, — I 
suppose they're your father's work ? " 

Beth Anne had never appreciated the little 
study so much. Gwen was more observant 
than the other girls had been and she was 
better trained in such things, too. She 
admired the rug and examined Beth Anne’s 
photographs with interest. 

“You’re awfully well set up here, B. A.," 
she said, glancing about and noting through 


228 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


the open door the perfectly appointed little 
bathroom. “ If all these dew-dabs belong to 
the Deaconess, as we call her, she must be a 
sort of princess in disguise. I wonder why I 
never spotted her before.” 

Beth Anne said she supposed it was because 
Marian's former roommate had told such un- 
truths about her. “ No one wanted to know 
a girl like that,” she explained. “ Beulah 
said she thought she was stingy, and so she 
wouldn't ask her to chip in for spreads when 
they were asking the other girls. Cara 
Williams was to blame for it all.” 

She unfolded the tale of that young person's 
deceit, and the careless Gwen shook her head 
over it. “ She was some masquerader, wasn't 
she ? ” she commented easily. “ It’s funny 
how many queer things happen in a boarding- 
school. I heard the other day that the Sports 
Committee wouldn’t have M. Lathrop until 
Virginia Randolph said she'd leave the Com- 
mittee if they didn't at least ask her. She’s a 
trump, that Virginia Randolph, and she’s the 
most popular girl in her class. She brought 
them into line, I can tell you.” 

“ She's always doing nice things for people,” 


AN ENEMT 


229 

Beth Anne agreed. “ I wish she could be 
here to-night, — you’ll like her better every 
time you see her.” 

Gwen did not echo the wish very fervently, 
but Beth Anne was too interested in school 
gossip to notice, and before long Beulah ar- 
rived with another large parcel in her arms, 
and Dorothy Mattern’s face smiling over her 
shoulder. 

“ Dot’s broken bounds, you see,” laughed 
Beulah in answer to Beth Anne’s look of sur- 
prise. “ She hasn’t a scrap of cold, and it was 
perfect nonsense for them to keep her mewed 
up in that old infirmary. So she skipped off 
while they were changing nurses, and no one 
will know she's gone, if she’s back before they 
change again.” 

Beth Anne was rather alarmed at this open 
breach of rules, but she saw that Dorothy 
was really looking very well, and she felt with 
the rest of the girls that a cold was not a very 
serious matter, and beside, as hostess she could 
not very well insist that Dorothy go back to 
her bondage. 

“ She can slip in easily enough. It’s only 
at the end of the hall, you know,” Beulah re- 


2 3 o BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

minded her, as they began to unwrap their 
bundles. “ Don’t look as though we were 
villains, B. A., or I’ll think you’re sorry you 
asked us. You wouldn’t have made a fuss 
about it if we’d had the spread in Dot’s room, 
would you ? ” 

Beth Anne had to confess that she had no 
right to find fault, since her study was only a 
substitute meeting place. She was greatly 
cheered by Beulah’s point of view and she 
gave herself up to the fun with a light heart. 

“ I’d have gotten out the toaster for the 
marshmallows if we’d had time to toast them,” 
she said as she helped put the nuts and 
candies on the table by the fire. “ Marian 
got the janitor to make a lot of nice smooth 
sticks yesterday, and they’re just the thing.” 

Beulah laughed her gay laugh. “ Do you 
think we’ve smuggled our goods over here 
for a snippy ten minutes, B. A. Burton ? ” 
she asked brightly. “ You needn't think 
you’re going to get rid of us that soon. 
Bring out your toasters ; we’ll brisk up the 
fire and begin operations while Gwen gets the 
other things ready.” 

Beth Anne would not have hesitated one 


AN ENEMT 


231 

moment if the toasters had been her own, or 
if Jinny had been there to countenance it, 
but she could not bring herself to obey 
Beulah’s gay command. 

“I thought we were just going to have 
some fun for a few minutes before the last 
bell,” she said doubtfully. “ I didn’t know 
you were going to stay late.” 

There was a peal of merry laughter at this 
speech, and Beth Anne felt very uncomfort- 
able again. She hated to seem queer, but 
still she hesitated. 

Dorothy turned to Beulah petulantly. 
“ Oh, well, if we’re not wanted we may as 
well go back to my room,” she said with a 
toss of her head. “ We don’t have to stay.” 

Beulah put out a protesting hand. “ For 
goodness’ sake, Dot, don’t fuss,” she cried 
briskly. “ B. A. isn’t so bad as all that. 
She’s just new to us, — that’s all. But we 
won’t stay if she feels it’s wrong to have us. 
Come, Gwen, we’ll go back to your room. 
Go ahead, Dot, and see if the coast’s clear. 
Come, B. A. We want you, too.” 

Her manner was so friendly and her face so 
unclouded that Beth Anne’s heart was wrung. 


232 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

She blushed very red indeed, and she drew a 
long breath as she stood faltering for another 
moment, while Gwen with an unconcerned air 
began to gather up the feast, and Dorothy’s 
brow darkened at the preparations for flight. 

“ I’m a nice one to send out first,” she 
grumbled, starting for the door sulkily. “ I’ll 
be spotted, — see if I’m not. There are lots of 
people in the hall, and I’ll run into Tappie 
or some beastly nurse.” 

It was the most uncomfortable moment that 
Beth Anne had ever endured. 

Beulah moved swiftly about helping Gwen, 
and Dorothy glowed at her from the doorway. 
No one spoke. 

Beth Anne could stand it no longer. She 
was just opening her lips to implore them to 
stay as long as they pleased and do exactly as 
they wanted to, when a light knock came on 
the door, and Miss Tapton’s voice called 
pleasantly : 

“ Are you at home, little Miss Burton ? 
I’m coming in to say good-night.” 

The four stared at each other. 

Beth Anne’s face went white as she met 
Dorothy's burning eyes. She felt that she 


AN ENEMT 


2 33 

deserved all the angry contempt that was 
gleaming there. She did not look at Beulah 
or Gwen, and in spite of being entirely inno- 
cent of any wrong-doing she endured an 
agony of shame during that brief moment of 
suspense. 

Answer her,” urged Beulah’s whisper. 
“ Answer her, quick.” 

Beth Anne came back to her senses enough 
to call out as steadily as she could, “ Yes, 
Miss Tapton, I’m here. Wait a minute,” and 
she fumbled at the lock in a nervous haste 
that was not pretense. 

She did not know what was going to hap- 
pen when she opened the door to the teacher. 
Her mind was in a whirl and her fingers 
moved mechanically. The door stuck a little 
and then it flew open, and she saw Miss Tap- 
ton smiling on the threshold. 

“ How do you do ? ” she said mechanically 
holding out her hand with unusual ceremony. 
“ It’s — it’s very nice of you to come.” 

She expected Miss Tapton’s face to change 
as she stepped into the room, but the smile 
did not fade, and Beth Anne turned with re- 
lief to find Dorothy gone and Beulah, with 


234 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

Gwen at her elbow, greeting Miss Tapton 
most pleasantly. 

“ We were just running off, like good girls/’ 
Beulah said gaily. “ B. A. is alone to-night 
and we came over to cheer her up. We’ll 
have to skip, if that clock is right. It 
wouldn’t do to be caught after last bell, and 
by a supervisor, too.” 

Beth Anne caught her breath at the smooth- 
ness with which Beulah had turned the situ- 
ation from guilty flight into a very natural 
and friendly departure. 

Miss Tapton smiled at them, wished them 
good-night in a cordial tone, and turned to 
Beth Anne as the door closed on them. 

“ My dear, I believe you are having a 
good influence on those madcaps,” she said 
kindly. “ I don’t believe they would be leav- 
ing any other rooms quite so early in the even- 
ing. They have a reputation for late hours 
and most indigestible spreads.” 

Beth Anne did not trust herself to reply. 
She knew that Dorothy must be hidden some- 
where in the rooms, and she was most uneasy 
until the kind teacher was gone. 

She closed the door on Miss Tapton with a 



‘'don’t ever speak to me again” 












































. 

I : '■ 




























































AN ENEMT 


2 35 

feeling of relief, and turned to face Dorothy 
glaring at her from the hearth rug. 

“ I was in your room, and I heard how you 
took the praise, you little sneaking humbug," 
Dorothy flashed at her. “ Tappie thinks 
you're reforming us, does she? I suppose 
that made up to you for turning us out of 
your rooms after you'd invited us here. 
Don't ever speak to me again, Beth Anne 
Burton. I wouldn't look at you if you were 
on your knees to me ! " 

“ Oh, Dorothy, please don't," gasped poor 
Beth Anne, trying to stem the flood of anger 
in vain. “ Oh, please don't ! I didn't mean 
to " 

“ Didn't mean ? " echoed Dorothy with a 
stamp of her foot. “ I don't believe you 
know what you mean. You swing about like 
a weather-vane. You asked us here, didn’t 
you ? I tell you, I’ll never forgive you. 
You'll find out if I'm to be turned out of any 
girl's room like that, — particularly by a mere 
snip like you ! " 

And with this outburst, she strode past 
Beth Anne, flung open the door and stalked 
down the hallway toward the infirmary, where 


236 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

Beth Anne saw her meet the nurse coming on 
duty for the night. 

“ Oh, dear, she’s caught, too ! ” thought 
Beth Anne with a sigh. “ She’ll be crosser 
than ever. Oh, dear, I wonder what Beulah 
will do? I suppose she’ll hate me, too. Oh, 
dear ! I wish Jinny were here.” 

She moved about the deserted rooms, feel- 
ing very desolate indeed. 

The last bell boomed its warning, and she 
snapped off the lights and crept to bed in the 
darkness, hearing over and over again those 
hot words that Dorothy had flung at her. 

“ She called me a sneaking humbug,” she 
thought with a little sob. “ Oh, I wonder if 
Beulah thinks so, too ? ” 


CHAPTER XV 


A HAPPY DAY 

Beulah, however, smiled good-naturedly at 
her when she met her in the arcade the next 
morning. 

“ I guess you were right about it last night, 
B. A.,” she said in her light way. “ Gwen 
and I were talking it over after we'd gotten 
to cover. I'm sort of half glad you stuck it 
out, even if poor Dot did get snapped up." 

“ I'm glad you aren't cross about it," re- 
plied Beth Anne, gratefully. She thought 
she ought to tell how near she had been to 
succumbing, but some instinct held her from 
it. “ Dorothy was fearfully angry with me. 
She says she'll never speak to me again." 

“ Pooh, she'll get over it," laughed Beulah, 
whose easy-going nature could not compre- 
hend such enmity. “ She flares up, but she's 
pretty good after all. Her bark is worse than 
237 


2 3 S BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

her bite. Hello, there’s V. Randolph coming 
in back of us. She wasn’t very ill, after all.” 

Beth Anne turned to meet Jinny with a 
great throb of relief. “ It’s seemed like ages 
and ages since you left, Jinny-pinny,” she 
told her, hanging on her arm as the three 
girls went into the refectory. “ I did so want 
you to stay over night with me. Marian 
went off last evening, and I was all alone.” 

“ Except when she had some unwelcome 
callers,” laughed Beulah. “ Better tell V. Ran- 
dolph about our little scrape, B. A. We’ve 
reformed now, and we shan’t mind.” 

Beth Anne giggled at her suddenly solemn 
face and upturned eyes, but she said no more 
to Jinny. She left her at her table and 
dropped into her own seat opposite Beulah, 
with a rather serious look on her face. 

“ I wish you wouldn’t joke so much with 
me, Beulah,” she said. “ I never know when 
you’re in earnest. Are you making fun of 
me ? ” 

Beulah’s face sobered a little as she looked 
across the snowy cloth straight into Beth 
Anne’s wide eyes. 

“ No, I’m not joking this time, B. A.,” she 


A HAPPY HAT 


239 

said in a lower tone. “ I’ve begun to believe 
in some of your funny little prim ideas my- 
self. Gwen never was very keen on the after- 
hour act, and she’s gone over to your side of 
it 1 pine blang,’ as old Chrissy says. We had 

a close shave last night ” 

She broke off abruptly as other girls began 
to come in and the first-year table filled with 
the usual chattering throng. The teachers 
took their places and breakfast began. 

There was something in her voice and in 
the way that she nodded a bright good-morn- 
ing to Miss Tapton at the head of the table 
that impressed Beth Anne. “ I believe she 
means it,” she thought, happily, and she ate 
her breakfast with a good appetite. Her 
eyes were sparkling as she met Jinny in the 
arcade. 

" Everything is going splendidly to-day, 
Jinny-pinny,” she told her. “ You’re well, 
and I got a lovely letter from Mother this 
morning, and there’s to be a rehearsal for the 
play this afternoon, and Gwen White says 
there’s skating on the lake. Shall you go, 
if it’s really good this afternoon ? ” 

Jinny thought she should not. “ It’s 


240 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

pretty soon after being in quarantine even for 
a night,” she replied. 44 I'll run over with 
you, though, and watch for a minute or two.” 

Beth Anne nodded. “ All right,” she said. 

41 I’ll be ready at half- past three Oh, 

no, I can't, I've got to mend a 4 barn-door' in 
my gym suit, and I've promised to go to the 
station for Marian.” 

Jinny smiled at her disappointed face. 
44 Never mind, Babs, we'll all go to-morrow,” 
she suggested. 44 We’ll get up a crowd and 
have a right jolly good time. Alice Sharp 
told me the hockey team will practice this 
afternoon, and they always spread themselves 
over the whole place.” 

Beth Anne was easily consoled, and she 
smiled back at Jinny as she turned to leave 
her. 

44 Then Marian can go, too,” she added. 
44 She said she could skate pretty well. I'll 
tell her the minute I see her, for she may 
have to buy skates, and we can go right over 
to Mullen's on our way from the station.” 

The day passed rather slowly, in spite of the 
fact that there was an extra drawing period 
and an examination in colonial history. She 


A HAPPY DAY 


241 


missed her roommate more than she had 
thought possible, and when four o'clock came, 
and she threw down her finished mending and 
pulled on her cap and sweater, she was con- 
scious of a little thrill of pleasure at the thought 
that Marian would soon be there again. 

“ I’ll be awfully glad to see her brown 
hat and droopy cape,” she thought as she 
scampered along the driveway toward the 
street. “ I mustn’t forget to ask her about the 
skates. Oh, dear, there’s the train coming 
in, and I’ll be late l ” 

She ran the rest of the way, and came 
panting up to the platform just as the long 
train was leaving the station, and the few 
passengers who had gotten off were beginning 
to leave the platform. The bus drove off 
briskly as Beth Anne stepped on the platform, 
and its horn scattered the porters and express- 
men who were gathered by the freight-house. 

Beth Anne looked about for the familiar 
dull brown hat and cape. 

“ Oh, bother, I’ve missed her, after all ! ” 
she said half aloud. “ She must have looked 
for me and then gone off in the bus.” 

She turned from the few passengers that 


242 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

were still near her, — an old lady with a fur 
coat and ear-trumpet, a stout man in white 
gaiters and big ulster, and a girl in a blue 
suit and wide hat. “ I suppose I’ll have to 
run right straight back after the bus,” she 
thought, and she hopped down off the plat- 
form, feeling very much vexed with herself 
for being late, after all her promises. 

“ Aren’t you going to wait for me? ” asked 
Marian’s voice. 

Beth Anne turned in astonishment. 

“ What ? Where ?” she began and 

then stopped stock-still, staring with all her 
might and main. 

“ Why, Marian Lathrop, I never knew 
you ! ” she cried, recovering a little as Ma- 
rian’s laugh rang merrily out. “ I never 
dreamed it was you ! ” 

Marian laughed out so merrily that the 
stout, white-gaitered man turned to look back 
at them. 

“ How do I look ? ” she asked, and she 
began to turn about slowly, while Beth Anne 
still stared. “ Do I look like other girls now?” 

Beth Anne bubbled with pleasure and sur- 
prise as she looked at her. 


A HAPPT DAT 


243 

Marian wore a pretty blue suit with soft 
black fur at the collar and wrists, a simple 
wide-brimmed hat, gloves and shoes that were 
correct as well as comfortable, and her face 
was glowing with such a gay eager friendly 
look that any one who saw her would have 
been as pleased with her as was the deaf old 
lady, who stood smiling and nodding at the 
little scene while her motor waited panting 
by the platform, and Beth Anne pranced with 
delight as Marian slowly revolved before her. 

“You look just like other girls, — only a 
good bit more ! You're a perfect duck in 
these clothes ! " she cried ardently. “ You 
look all different. Your face looks so pretty, 
and you're as gay as — as — well, as even 
Beulah herself. How did you get to look so 
smiley and twinkly all at once?" 

Marian laughed as she took Beth Anne's 
arm and fell into step. “ I don't know how 
it is," she said, frankly. “ It can't be just the 
clothes, you know, but I feel just like other 
people now. The girls wouldn't stop now to 
stare at me, or laugh after I'd gone by, like 
they used to, — would they ? I used almost to 
hate them for it, though I despised them, too. 


244 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

I used to think they were silly and I was 
sensible. I guess I was silly myself.” 

Beth Anne, with her eyes on the new 
Marian, agreed with most unflattering prompt- 
ness. “ I guess any one’s silly who tries to be 
different from other people,” she said wisely. 
“ Mother says it’s awfully conceited to be 
proud of being different, and she’s always 
right. I’m glad you’ve gotten over liking to 
be queer. You’re perfectly sweet now. I’m 
crazy for the girls to see you. Tell me all 
about it while we’re going along. When did 
you get your things, and what made you 
want them, and all ? ” 

They left the old lady wedging herself into 
her limousine, and they trotted off down the 
snowy walk toward the school buildings, chat- 
tering away very gaily. Marian told how 
she had written to her grandmother for new 
clothes, and how Cousin Annie Parrin had 
been sent for, and an appointment made for 
this very day. 

“ And we went about in the shops getting 
things all the morning,” she said with an ex- 
cited little laugh. “ Grandmother never used 
to let Cousin Annie say a word about my 


A HAPPY HAY 


245 

things, — she was so afraid I'd get silly about 
clothes like lots of girls are. But when I told 
her how I felt about wearing those old dull 
things, and how you had such pretty colored 
clothes and didn’t ever talk or think about 
them, she was sort of sorry she’d made me be 
so plain. And she said I was to have every- 
thing suitable, and just as pretty as it could 
be — to be right.” 

“ How sweet of her,” cried Beth Anne, won 
at once by such generosity. “ I guess she 
really didn’t realize how you looked before, — 
being blind, you know. She let you have 
other things, the bathroom and the jewelry 
and all. I suppose she didn’t understand how 
you felt about the clothes. Here come a 
couple of the girls. I wonder if they’ll know 
you ? ” she ended abruptly. “ Oh, it’s Beulah 
and Gwen. What fun ! ” 

They had entered the gates and were on the 
drive and they met the other two girls face to 
face, passing them on the wide driveway. 
The sunset light was full on Marian’s flushed 
cheeks and bright eyes, on her pretty costume 
and on her whole erect figure as she swung 
along with a light step beside Beth Anne, but 


246 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

the others passed her without greeting, though 
they nodded to Beth Anne pleasantly enough. 

They were barely past when Beth Anne ex- 
ploded into peals and trills of delighted mirth. 
“ What did I tell you? ” she cried, stopping in 
the path. “ Oh, Marian Lathrop, what did I 
tell you? ” 

Gwen White wheeled about like a flash. 

“ What ? ” she began, and then her eyes 

fell on Marian’s laughing face. 

“ Great guns ! ” she cried, peering at the 
transformed figure. “ Is that M. Lathrop in 
the flesh, or am I in a trance? My word, 
what a peach ! Beulah, don’t stare like that, 
— it isn’t polite.” 

Beulah had turned at her exclamation, and 
was positively gaping. 

“ I — I can’t help it,” she returned with a 
laugh and a look of admiration at the smil- 
ing Marian. “ I’m so surprised. I’ll behave 
in a minute or two. M. Lathrop doesn’t look 
cross enough to make me ashamed anyway. 
You don’t mind us being sort of bowled over 
by your good looks, do you, M. Lathrop?” 

Marian looked back at her in a very friendly 
manner. “ I don’t mind anything to-day,” 


A HAPPT DAT 


247 

she replied, radiantly. 11 I’m sort of surprised 
myself.” 

44 Doesn’t she look sweet? And won’t it be 
jolly to see the girls stare?” crowed Beth 
Anne. “ You two were awfully funny. I’m 
wild to see Jinny now. Come on, Marian, we 
can’t stand gabbling all day. I’ve got to go 
to that old rehearsal at half-past.” 

She pulled Marian along, leaving Beulah 
and Gwen to go on their way and she was al- 
most at the dormitory door before she remem- 
bered that Jinny had gone over to Junior hall 
and was to meet her there. 

14 Do come over with me,” she urged, but 
Marian had had enough of exhibition for the 
present and preferred to go to her room. 

Beth Anne was much disappointed. 44 I’ll 
run over and tell them I can’t come to re- 
hearsal,” she said. 41 Wait for me here.” 

She was off like a flash and back again be- 
fore Marian could protest. 44 Jinny wasn’t 
there. She’s gone to the lake. Rehearsal’s 
off till to-morrow,” she panted. 44 There’s 
your suit-case coming in now. Oh, Marian, 
do let’s hurry. I’m crazy to see what you 
have in it I ” 


248 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

The remembrance of the skating party for 
to-morrow came to her, and she stopped on 
the door-sill, crying out that Marian must 
have skates and that she was a stupid thing 
not to have thought of it before. “ But you 
were such a perfectly formendous surprise, you 
know,” she explained, bubbling again with 
delight in the change. “ I forgot there were 
such things as skates in the whole world i ” 

Marian told her briefly that she had very 
good skates in her closet. She had been 
fumbling in the inner pocket of her coat and 
as they turned to go indoors, she held out a 
small package to Beth Anne, saying in a rather 
fluttered tone : 

“ You mayn’t like it, and of course you’ll 
have to write about it, but I wanted to give 
you something to remember me by and ” 

Beth Anne dearly loved presents and sur- 
prises, and this one looked too promising to 
be delayed. She tore off the paper covers of 
the little box, and pulled open the lid with 
eager fingers. 

“ Oh, Marian Lathrop, how adorable ! ” she 
cried. “ How did you ever guess what I 
wanted ? Oh, oh, oh ! ” 


A HAPPT DAT 249 

A simple gold band with a green flat stone 
in its shining coils lay in the little box, and 
Beth Anne could not find words for her de- 
light in it. 

She took it out and tried it on both of her 
little fingers, dropping her gloves on the floor 
in her trembling haste, and she held up her 
hand for Marian to see. 

“ Isn't it simply perfect ? " she breathed. 
“ Oh, Marian, I just love it." 

Marian beamed at the heartiness of the 
reception of her gift. “ You'll have to ask 
your mother, of course," she said, picking up 
Beth Anne's gloves and leading the way up- 
stairs. “ But it's pretty plain, and I think 
she’ll let you have it. Cousin Annie said 
that the green jade-stone was a nice one." 

“ How did you ever think of getting such 
a lovely thing for me?" asked Beth Anne, 
oblivious of everything save the shining ring 
on her little finger. She held her hand out 
before her as she climbed the stairs, and she 
smiled at it, cocking her bright head first on 
one side and then on the other. 

Marian gave a pleased chuckle as she 
steered her past the open door of the first- 


250 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

year infirmary. Neither of them noticed the 
girl by the infirmary window, whose back 
was toward them, but who started at the 
sound of their voices and listened eagerly. 

“ You were so nice about not touching my 
rings that I wanted to make it up to you/’ 
replied Marian, looking fondly at the pre- 
occupied Beth Anne. 

Beth Anne did not take her eyes off her new 
possession. “ I never dreamed when I was 
looking at those heavenly chains and rings 
of yours that you’d do anything like this for 
me,” she sighed, ardently. “ Oh, Marian, 
you’re turning out almost too good. It’s like 
a story-book, for sure. I feel as if I were in 
a perfectly splendid dream and all my wishes 
were coming true. There isn’t another girl 
who has so many nice things happen to them 
as I have.” 

She waited while Marian unlocked the 
study door, and her eyes were feasting on 
her precious ring, while she counted on her 
fingers. “It’s just five days until the play,” 
she said thoughtfully. “ If I write to-night I 
can get Mother’s letter in time. I do so want 
to wear it to the play.” 


CHAPTER XVI 


THE PLAY AND THE NOTE 

“ I wish you were going, Marian/’ said 
Beth Anne, rather ruefully. “ It doesn’t 
seem fair for me to be going off and leaving 
you alone.” 

Marian looked up from her Latin prose, 
and she laughed good-naturedly at Beth 
Anne’s expression. 

“ Don’t you bother about me,” she told her 
cheerily. “I’m going to have just as good a 
time, and perhaps better. Those school par- 
ties aren’t so awfully gay sometimes. The 
Daltons are coming in after a while and Gwen 
White promised to come over too. I’ll do 
very well, thank you.” 

Beth Anne stood in the doorway, looking 
at her with great satisfaction. Marian wore 
a plain dress but it was of a soft green that 
suited her well, and her thick hair was tied 
with a wide bow of the same becoming hue. 

251 


252 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

The change that had begun so happily on 
that Friday afternoon when Beth Anne had 
hurried to the station to meet her had gone 
steadily on during the week that had passed, 
and Marian had grown more and more pleas- 
ing to look at each day. Her new clothes, 
the popularity of her swift-flying Comet, her 
skill on skates, and above all the quiet, 
pleasant, steady way in which she took the 
change in the girls’ regard for her, had won 
her many friends already. 

Beth Anne thought of something that Gwen 
White had said to her the day before and she 
paused with her hand on the knob. 

“ Gwen told me that she’s done with Dorothy 
Mattern for keeps,” she said with a proud 
little toss of her head. “ Dorothy said she 
thought you were perfectly sickening with 
your new airs, and that she wondered how 
Beulah and Gwen could put up with the two 
of us. Wasn’t it nice of Gwen to stick up for 
us? And Beulah says she thinks Dorothy 
has been horrid to us both, and she’s going 
to tell her what she thinks of it when she sees 
her.” 

“ It seems to me those girls have changed 


THE PLAT AND THE NOTE 253 

a lot,” said Marian uncertainly. 44 Or is it 
just because I’ve changed myself? I get sort 
of twisted up nowadays.” 

Beth Anne fluttered over to the desk and 
faced her earnestly. She could never talk 
seriously without looking squarely at her 
companion. 

44 Jinny says that Beulah Whitridge is ever 
so different since she has been chums with 
Gwen White. All the time that Dorothy has 
been in the infirmary this week they’ve been 
together, and Gwen is ever so sensible under 
her fun. Jinny likes Gwen, even though she 
is only a first-year, and she wants me to ask 
Mother to ask her to Gable End next vaca- 
tion. That’s what Jinny says,” she ended 
with an emphatic nod of her curly head. 
44 And Beulah herself told me that Miss Tap- 
ton was perfectly sweet to her while she was 
quarantined last Wednesday for that old cold 
that we’ve all had. She says she’ll never 
have the heart to joke about Tappie, as she 
used to call her, for she was just as kind and 
sweet as any one could be and Beulah 
hasn’t any mother, you know.” 

She straightened up with another toss of 


254 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

her curls. “ I guess we were all sort of 
twisted up at first, ” she said gaily. “ We 
were all thinking queer things about each 
other. But we're straightened out now, 
aren't we, Marian ? Oh, here comes Jinny ! 
I suppose I'm late again ! ” 

Jinny came to the door, but would not 
come in. “ We’ll have to skip, Babs,” she 
said hastily. “ The music is starting, and 
half of the Seniors are in the hall already. 
Good-night, Marian; we’ll be pretty late, I 
guess.” 

Beth Anne danced along beside Jinny as 
they hurried across the campus toward the 
hall. Lights were shining from the win- 
dows. Girls were scurrying toward the build- 
ing from every quarter of the quadrangle. 
Sounds of music came softly out on the crisp 
night air, and behind the elms’ great bare 
branches a crescent moon hung glittering in 
the dark sky. 

“ Hello, V. Randolph ! They’re looking 
for you behind the scenes,” called a gay voice 
as they pressed into the crowd that was 
thronging the wide stair. “ The program’s 
changed, and the play’s to be the next on the 


THE PLAT AND THE NOTE 255 

list. You’d better skip if you don’t want to 
be scalped.” 

Beth Anne was in a delightful flutter of 
spirits as she followed Jinny up the stairs, 
across the hallway, and back to the entrance 
to the stage and dressing-rooms. 

“ It’s like the studio play, do you remem- 
ber, Jinny?” she whispered. “ There’s just 
such a crowd ! Oh, there’s Alice Sharp, and 
she’s dressed already. How cute she looks in 
Bess’s shepherd-girl dress I ” 

The place was crowded with an excited 
throng of girls and monitors. The change in 
program had come unexpectedly, and in spite 
of all their careful preparations, the manage- 
ment was rather upset by the necessity for 
haste. 

Beth Anne saw Jinny fly into the dressing- 
room, from which she herself was barred, and 
she took a station back on the stage among 
the wings where she was out of the way and 
yet could enjoy the whole scene. 

“ I’m glad the scenery came safely,” she 
thought, glancing up at the four layers of 
beautifully painted linen that hung about the 
stage ready to be lifted down one at a time as 


256 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

the play went on. “ It's lucky we had them 
and the silver-paper armor, too. Father 
made them all so beautifully.” 

She had her book of the play with her, and 
she held it carefully while she waited for the 
actors to assemble behind the curtain. Her 
hands fairly trembled with excitement as she 
heard the stage manager, one of the older 
monitors, calling softly into each dressing- 
room, “ All ready now for the first act ! 
Come and take your places. Come and take 
your places ! ” 

She drew a long breath as she saw Alice 
Sharp pick up her broom and take the centre 
of the stage, while Jinny lurked in the wings 
behind her and Mary Hall, as the old father, 
hovered on the other side, both ready for 
their entrances. 

There was a moment of silence. From the 
hall outside of the curtain came a subdued 
clapping, and then the voice of Miss Carter 
announcing the play. 

“ The Little Brown Princess. A play in 
four acts ” 

Beth Anne did not catch the rest of the 
words, for her head was swimming and her 


THE PLAT AND THE NOTE 257 

breath catching in her throat. “ Oh, it's go- 
ing to be just like the studio-play,” she 
whispered aloud. “ Oh, I wish the curtain 
would go up ! ” 

Ting ! Ting ! 

It was a bell so much like that one in the 
studio at home that for the moment Beth 
Anne lost memory of time and place and she 
started forward eagerly, half expecting to see 
her mother in shimmering satin and spangles, 
with Cousin Lucia's filmy blue draperies be- 
side her, smiling up at her from the second 
row of seats, while the studio, gorgeous in 
yellow chrysanthemums and gay with autumn 
branches, glowed behind and about her. 

Ting ! Ting ! 

Slowly the gaily painted curtain rolled up- 
ward, while a sound of hand-clapping and 
murmuring laughter wafted over the foot- 
lights. Beth Anne stared out over the assem- 
bly, and she caught her breath with a little 
throb of disappointment. 

Instead of the gorgeous autumn colors or 
the dim hues of the rich tapestries of the 
studio walls she saw the same hall that she 
had seen so often during the last three weeks, 


258 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

draped with some gay flags with branches of 
cedar stuck behind their folds, while the floor 
was filled by rows and rows of folding chairs 
filled with Seniors and Juniors. As her eyes 
grew accustomed to the dim spaces beyond 
the footlights she began to pick out the smil- 
ing faces of girls whom she knew, and the 
little flash of disappointment faded almost be- 
fore she was conscious of it. 

“ How jolly they look,” she whispered to 
Mary Hall as she passed her. “ They are go- 
ing to like it, aren’t they ? ” 

Mary nodded as she went on. “ They’ve 
turned out splendidly,” she said hurriedly. 
“ Look sharp now, B. A. I may need your 
services.” 

Beth Anne giggled with excitement and 
felt very important indeed as she turned her 
attention to the book, an act which was al- 
most unnecessary, for she knew every word of 
the little play by heart. 

“ Oh, dear, how I hate to work,” said Alice 
Sharp, and the play had begun. 

Beth Anne clutched her book and kept her 
eyes glued conscientiously to the page, while 
the acts followed one another in smooth sue- 


THE PLAT AND THE NOTE 259 

cession. The girls did their parts well, and 
the audience was enthusiastic, calling them 
out between the acts with generous applause. 
The scenes shifted with ease, and the whole 
performance wound on to its end trium- 
phantly. 

“ It’s a great success, B. A.,” declared Alice 
Sharp at the end of the third act. “ You 
ought to be mighty proud of your stepchild. 
Miss Lee was clapping like mad a while ago. 
She’s down on the third row there. See, — by 
the girl in green.” 

Beth Anne peeped out of the hole in the 
curtain just in time to see Miss Lee receive a 
note, read it with a perplexed face, and then 
rise and leave the hall. Alice had hurried 
away to help Martha Finch with the silver- 
paper armor, which had suffered in the last 
act, and Beth Anne turned her attention to 
the rest of the audience, seeing more girls 
whom she knew and recognizing the Seniors 
by their white dresses and blue ribbons. She 
forgot Miss Lee entirely after that. 

The end of the play came all too soon for 
the enthusiastic audience, and when the cur- 
tain went down the applause grew deafening. 


260 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

“ Come on, B. A.,” cried Mary Hall, holding 
out a hand to Beth Anne in the wings. 
“ We've all got to make our last bow, and 
you're in it this time." 

Beth Anne in her pretty dress, with her 
curls bobbing excitedly and her face pink 
with smiles, made a small figure on the end of 
the line of tall girls, but she got her share of 
applause when Alice Sharp raised a large 
pasteboard placard with the word Author on 
it in big black letters and held it over Beth 
Anne’s curly head. 

How she blushed and how they clapped ! 
It was a splendid moment for Beth Anne and 
she went down off of the stage after it was all 
over feeling very gay and important. 

“ So this is the little girl who wrote the 
play ? " asked an elderly lady with large spec- 
tacles, whom Beth Anne afterward found to 
be the president at Holerest Academy. “ A 
very nice little play, my dear, very creditable 
indeed, for one of your years. Borrowed 
largely from the Germanic legends, I think." 

And then she turned her back on Beth 
Anne, and went on with her chat with Miss 
Skelton, who merely nodded at the authoress, 


THE PLAT AND THE NOTE 261 


being more occupied with the president of 
Hoi crest. 

The girls were all very enthusiastic about 
the play, but they were busy arranging for 
the dance which was to follow, and even 
Jinny could not give her a moment. 

“ You see, we Juniors have to ask the 
Seniors to dance. They daren't dance with 
even their own girls until after they've been 
invited first by us," she explained as she 
slipped into her muslin frock. “ I've got two 
Seniors to start off before I can be with you. 
You won't mind, I guess, for you know 
lots of people and you always have a good 
time." 

Beth Anne nodded and went her way, 
thinking that Junior parties were not so very, 
very much fun for first-year girls after all. 
The memory of the happy ending of the 
studio party came to her mind as she wan- 
dered about among the busy groups, getting 
always a gay greeting or a word of praise but 
feeling less and less at ease every minute. 

She looked about for Miss Tapton, but she 
was nowhere in sight. The music for the 
first dance was beginning and, as she had no 


262 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


partner nor very much prospect of dancing at 
all, she quietly slipped away, nodding and 
smiling at the girls she met on her way to the 
door with as gay an air as she could muster. 

“ I’ll go over and see Marian for a while,” 
she thought, trying very hard not to feel 
disappointed in the evening which she had 
looked forward to with such high hopes. “ I 
can be back before Jinny misses me.” 

As she trotted over the frosty path the 
memory of the studio party flamed before her 
again, and again she had that vision of her 
pretty mother in her dainty white draperies 
with the jewels in her hair and the tender 
light in her eyes. A little wave of home- 
sickness swept over her, and she shut her lips 
tightly and shook her head impatiently. 

“ I'm going to cry pretty soon if I don’t 
look out,” she thought. “ On the very night 
of the play, too ! I wonder what Ben would 
say if he’d see me now. I guess he’d think 
he was right about boarding-school after all.” 

She laughed a little at this, and the home- 
sick feeling fled as she ran up-stairs toward 
the study. The big black letters on Num- 
ber 19 looked very pleasant to her as she 


THE PLAT AND THE NOTE 263 

tapped lightly on its panels and then turned 
the knob. 

“ I've come back for a minute, Marian/’ 
she cried as she went in. “ I’m ” 

She stopped as she saw that Marian was 
alone. 

“ Why, where are the Twins ? ” she asked 
in surprise. “ Didn’t Gwen come over 
either ? ” 

Marian had been standing at the book 
shelf and she turned at the question. “ Oh, 
you’ve been crying, Marian ! ” cried Beth 
Anne in consternation. “ What is the mat- 
ter ? Has anything happened ? ” 

“ Come in and shut the door, and I’ll tell 
you about it,” said Marian, in a strange voice. 

Beth Anne’s heart sank at her tone. “ But 
nothing could have happened in such a short 
time,” she persisted, knowing while she said 
it that it was a foolish thing to say. “ It’s 
been such a little while.” 

“ Just an hour by the clock there,” replied 
Marian quietly, glancing at the little time- 
piece on the desk as she sat down opposite 
Beth Anne* “ It didn’t take long, you see.” 

She was silent for a second and then she 


264 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

looked up again. “ Beth Anne, I know it 
wasn't you who told," she began abruptly. 
“ Don't think I would believe that it was 
you, — though it wouldn't have mattered very 
much anyway. For I had begun to think 
perhaps I was breaking the rules in keeping 
them here " 

A suspicion of what she was talking of 
turned Beth Anne cold. “ It isn’t the jew- 
elry, is it ? " she asked with a gasp. “ Oh, 
Marian, tell me right away, please." 

Marian began in a steady tone. “ Miss Lee 
came in a little while ago and asked me 
where you were. She had a note, which was 
written exactly the way you write and signed 
with a little scribbly thing that looked like a 
B. It had been handed her at the Junior 
party, she said, and she had come straight 
over to see what it meant. I told her you'd 
never written it " 

“I? Write a note to Miss Lee?" cried 
Beth Anne astonished. “ Why, I'd never 
dream of such a thing. What should I write 
to her about? " 

Marian nodded. “ I told her that," she 
went on. “ I told her you’d never do such a 


THE PLAY AND THE NOTE 265 

thing, and if you had wanted to tell her I was 
breaking the rules you’d never have called 
her out of a party to do it. The note said 
that you wanted her to come to Number 19 
on important business. That she was to ask 
me about my 1 heavenly rings.’ Of course, 
she thought something had happened and she 
came right over. The Twins and Gwen were 
here. They went out when Miss Lee said she 
wanted to speak to me. I suppose they all 
wondered what was up.” 

Beth Anne’s mind was in a ferment. 

“ I never breathed a single word about your 
rings to any one,” she vowed hotly. “ I never 

opened my lips even to Jinny ” 

“Of course you didn’t,” Marian assured 
her. “ Don’t think I ever believed you did. 
I told Miss Lee that I had the things and she 
was awfully nice about it. She understood 
how it was.” 

“ Oh, then it wasn’t so bad after all,” cried 
Beth Anne with a rush of relief. “ You 

didn’t get any scolding or demerits ” 

Once again Marian interrupted her. “ No, 
I wasn’t scolded. I wasn’t crying about that. 
But — but when I went to get the things to. 


266 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


give - Miss Lee to keep for a while I found— 
that one of the rings was gone ! ” 

Beth Anne gave a little cry of dismay. 
44 Gone ? ’’ she echoed blankly. 44 How could 
it be gone? ” 

“ That's what we couldn't find out," an- 
swered Marian. 14 It was all so mixed-up and 
puzzling. We hunted everywhere. Miss Lee 
turned on the lights and sent for Miss Tapton, 
and they helped me look into every chink 
and corner. I had the big trunk inside out 
and everything in my room lifted up and 
shaken but we couldn’t find it." 

Beth Anne stared. 44 Gone ? " she repeated. 
44 Oh, Marian, it just can’t be gone. It must 
be somewhere. Did you look in my room, 
too? Though it couldn’t be there, of course. 
Did you shake out all the things in the 
trunk? " 

Marian told her that both teachers had 
searched thoroughly, and although it was late 
the laundry had been examined. Mrs. Vare 
had been called in and Sadie the chambermaid 
had been interviewed all to no avail. 

44 Some one must have come in and taken 
it," declared Beth Anne. 


THE PLAY AND THE NOTE 267 

“ Couldn’t. We lock up too well,” retorted 
Marian. “ Miss Lee says it’s a very queer sit- 
uation. She doesn’t believe you wrote the let- 
ter, because she says there isn’t any reason 
why you should. We’re good friends and 
you’d had no purpose in getting me into 
trouble and choosing the time when most 
people would hear of it. All of the Seniors 
and Juniors know she went out after she got 
the note, and the Twins know that she came 
straight here. And that was enough to make 
the girls think something was up. No, she 
says that it must be some trickery on the part 
of some one else.” 

“ Who could it be ? ” asked Beth Anne, and 
as her eyes met Marian’s reddened ones she 
knew that they were both thinking of the same 
name. “ Oh, but Dorothy didn’t know you 
had the things,” she said, more puzzled than 
ever. “ And even if she did write the note to 
pay me out as she threatened, she wouldn’t 
and couldn’t have taken the ring ! ” 

“ No, that’s the queer part,” admitted Ma- 
rian, with a sigh. “Miss Lee’s just as much 
puzzled as we are, and Miss Tapton says we 
mustn’t say a word to any one. She’ll be in 


268 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


in the morning to help us look over the place 
again.” 

Beth Anne brightened instantly. “ Oh, 
we’ll find it then, for sure,” she said hope- 
fully. “ It must be here, you know. Don’t 
worry about it yet, Marian dear. I just feel it 
in my bones that it’s here in these rooms.” 

They talked the matter over very soberly, 
wondering at the strange tangle, and every 
now and then one of them would jump up 
and search under some object which had 
caught their eye, turning over all sorts of ab- 
surd and impossible articles such as the paper 
weight, the bottle of toilet water that Beth 
Anne had left on the desk, and the glass 
candlestick. 

“ I’ll tell you what I think,” said Beth 
Anne. “ I believe that some one must have 
overheard us talking about the things when 
we were in the study the other night, and she 
wrote the letter just for a joke.” 

“ But how about taking the ring — if it is 
really gone ? ” asked Marian. “ No, B. A. 
That won’t do. You simply can’t explain it 
at all. We’ll have to wait and see how it 
turns out.” 


- THE PLAT AND THE NOTE 269 

Beth Anne gave an impatient shake of her 
head. “ But it’s so horridly hard to wait,” 
she lamented. “ I hate to wait. Oh, if father 
were only here, — he’d know just what to do. 
He always does.” 

Marian rose, and looked about restlessly. 
“ I suppose it’s time to go to bed, — unless 
you’re going back to the party,” she said. 

As she spoke the deep tones of the last bell 
boomed out. 

“ I wouldn’t go back for anything,” de- 
clared Beth Anne warmly. “ Do you think 
I’d leave you alone? And besides, I’m going 
to haul out every last scrap in my room, even 
though I get a thousand demerits for lights- 
after-hours. I just can’t sleep a wink until 
I go over everything with my very own 
hands.” 

Marian sat on the bed, keeping her com- 
pany while she searched high and low, turning 
out even her ribbons and stockings, and sorting 
the very postals in her writing-pad. But it 
was all in vain, as in fact both had known it 
would be, since the rings had never been in 
Beth Anne’s room at all. 

“ Though you never know what queer 


270 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

things may happen,” Beth Anne said as she 
rose from her task yawning dismally. “ I 
might have walked in my sleep and taken 
them, you know, — I was frightfully fond of 
them. I thought of that when I began to 
hunt.” 

Marian did not even answer, but she kissed 
Beth Anne good-night with great heartiness. 

“ However it turns out, you’re all right,” 
she said emphatically. “ Don’t get any silly 
ideas like that in your head. There’s enough 
to think about without making up things.” 

Beth Anne went about her preparations for 
bed with her head still very much in a whirl. 
She was not used to solve serious problems by 
herself. In fact, her sheltered life had known 
no such problems. When a grocer’s boy had 
appropriated a small bill or a cook had 
carried off the napkins and the roast, she had 
heard only faint echoes of the affair. Her 
father or her mother attended to such matters 
without overmuch ado : and among the cheer- 
ful circle of the G. S. C. there could be no 
problems of this nature. 

“ I don’t see why such horrid things have 
to happen,” she thought as she knelt down to 


THE PLAT AND THE NOTE 271 

say her prayers. “ There wasn't anything 
like this after any of our parties at home." 

And then she prayed very heartily for the 
ring to be found and for all the tangle to be 
cleared up. 

“ Please, please let us find it in the morn- 
ing/' she said fervently. 


CHAPTER XVII 


TANGLED THREADS 

“ I’d like to have ‘ The Princess Pocahon- 
tas,’ ” said a voice behind the screen. 

Beth Anne started and glanced up, but she 
was too far from the desk to catch even a 
glimpse of the speaker. The voice sounded 
like Dorothy Mattern and Beth Anne had no 
wish to meet her just now, so she snuggled 
down deeper in her chair and went on with 
her reading. 

It had been a long morning, and she was 
tired. The ring had not been found as yet. 
Miss Lee had sent for Beth Anne, cautioning 
her against talking much to any one until the 
mystery should be cleared up, and Beth Anne 
with her usual thoroughness had fled from 
every one who came near her, and now in- 
stead of being out with the others on the pond, 
or in the gym, practicing for the Sports, she had 
betaken herself to the furthest corner of the 
reading-room, where she knew she would be 
272 


TANGLED THREADS 273 

unmolested, and she had curled up in the 
comfortable chair by the window with a 
volume of Andersen’s Fairy Tales. 

“ I’m just going to stop thinking about that 
note and the ring,” she said as she settled her- 
self with the book. “ I keep getting more and 
more mixed up all the time.” 

She had soon become absorbed and was 
with the Marsh King’s Daughter, flying in 
the stork’s feathers over the wastes of Jutland 
when she had heard the voice at the desk. 
She soon forgot it again in the story of that 
royal princess whose frog-like shape and gen- 
tle manners had always a fascination for her. 
She had come to the part where the Christian 
priest was swinging the censer high as he 
rode through the wilderness, when a voice on 
the other side of the screen came to her with 
startling distinctness. 

It was Marian’s voice, and she was speaking 
very earnestly. 

“ You wrote the note out of spite, — though 
I don’t see what good it’s done you,” she said. 
“ I’m not going to tell on you. I’m not that 
sort. Miss Lee can find it out, I guess. But 
I want you to tell me where the ring is ” 


274 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

Beth Anne’s startled ears caught the sound 
of a falling book, as though some one had 
made a sudden movement. 

“ The ring ? ” echoed Dorothy’s voice in 
sharp denial. “ What ring? I didn’t see 
your rings. What do you mean ? ” 

Beth Anne listened breathlessly as Marian 
told her of the search, winding up with an 
entreaty to Dorothy to end the doubtful joke 
and tell what had been done with the missing 
ring. 

“ I tell you I never saw your old things,” 
protested Dorothy. “ I heard Beth Anne 
Burton talking about ‘ your heavenly rings ’ 
one day, but” — there was a tiny pause as 
she caught her breath and went on swiftly, 
“ perhaps she knows where it is. People 
who admire things so much sometimes like 
to own them.” 

Beth Anne’s cheeks crimsoned with hot 
shame. She sat stricken dumb at the very 
sound of the hateful words. She wanted to 
rush around the screen and deny the horrible 
accusation with all her might, but she had no 
strength to rise. Her whole world was crash- 
ing about her ears, and she hardly heard the 


TANGLED THREADS 


2 75 

hot denial that Marian threw back, nor Doro- 
thy's nervous laugh as she followed the en- 
raged Marian out of the reading-room. 

“ She thinks I'm a thief," murmured Beth 
Anne, aghast at the very sound of the words. 
“ She thinks I took the ring! " 

She was so appalled that she sank down 
covering her eyes with her two hands and 
clinching her teeth to keep from crying out 
loud. “ Oh, how could she? How could 
she ? " she moaned under her breath. “ I’d 
never say such a thing of any girl. Oh, how 
could she say I was a thief ! " 

She started up, unable to bear the thought, 
and she walked swiftly out of the library, 
leaving Andersen’s Fairy Tales lying on the 
floor beside the empty chair. 

She did not know where she was going or 
what she would do when she got there. She 
only knew that she was scorching and shrivel- 
ing with shame, and that unless something 
happened her heart was going to break within 
her. 

She ran across the campus, and the voices 
of the girls on the lake came gaily to her. 
She thought, “ Will they think I’m a thief, 


276 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

too ? I'm not, I'm not, — but Dorothy thought 
so, and perhaps they will, too." 

She hurried by Mary Hall and Alice Sharp, 
who were on their way to the gym practice 
and would have stopped her with some ques- 
tions about the play and her sudden disap- 
pearance last night, but she ran on, not even 
looking at them. “ They'll hear of it pretty 
soon, and then they’ll wonder about it, too," 
she said to herself miserably. 

It was a bright day of flashing sunshine, 
and all the little world of Brighton looked 
gay and serene as poor Beth Anne hurried on. 
Miss Lee, coming out of the cheery office with 
a smile on her lips, ran into the small desolate 
figure at the corner of the president's house. 
She had forgotten for the moment the tangled 
affairs of Number 19, and she did not see Beth 
Anne's tragic face at first. 

But when she did see it, her smile faded 
and she took Beth Anne into the cozy parlor 
where the stocking-bag still hung on the back 
of the chair and she put her in a seat beside 
the fire and, holding her quivering hands in 
both her own warm strong ones, she made her 
tell her little story. 


TANGLED THREADS 277 

There was not so much to tell, since Beth 
Anne would not reveal the name of her ac- 
cuser, but she sobbed out her pain and horror 
in broken sentences, finding relief in unbur- 
dening herself, and she clung to the warm 
strong hands with all her cold ten fingers, 
feeling comforted by the mere touch of them. 

Miss Lee let her sob out her strongest feel- 
ings and then she said very decisively : 

“ Don’t ever let me hear any of this non- 
sense again. You must not speak of it, or 
even think of it. Tell no one what you 
heard, and I shall take measures to have the 
whole affair settled at once. Now, run back 
to your room and make yourself comfortable. 
Go out skating or to the gym practice, if you’d 
rather.” 

Beth Anne looked up at the kind face, and 
all her grateful heart shone in her wide blue 
eyes. “ I’ll do anything you wish me to,” 
she answered ardently. “ I — I’d like to kiss 
you, if you don’t mind.” 

Miss Lee smiled very kindly at her as Beth 
Anne held up her rosy mouth for the kiss, 
and she patted her shoulder tenderly as she 
led her to the door. It was not the sort of 


278 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

scene that might have been expected between 
a first-year scholar and the acting-president, 
and Miss Lee smiled in spite of herself as she 
opened the door for her impetuous guest. 

“ Give my love to your mother when you’re 
writing, my dear,” she said. “ And don’t fret 
yourself about this any more than you must.” 

Beth Anne scampered off in a very different 
frame of mind from the one that had pos- 
sessed her when she had entered the cheery 
parlor. Shame had given place to indigna- 
tion at Dorothy’s baseness, and her mortifica- 
tion was softened by her ardent admiration 
for her comforter. “ Oh, how lovely she is,” 
she thought gratefully. “ She’s almost as 
sweet as Mother.” And this was the highest 
praise that she could utter. 

There was no one in the study when she 
reached Number 19 , but a sound of voices and 
footsteps behind her made her turn as she was 
going in. Miss Tapton, followed by Marian 
with flashing eyes and erect head, and Doro- 
thy, white and sulky, came quickly along the 
corridor. 

She motioned to Beth Anne to join them 
as she stopped at her own door. 


TANGLED THREADS 279 

“ I think we shall want you, too," she said. 
Her pleasant voice was very grave, and she 
looked more serious than Beth Anne had ever 
seen her. “ I shall 'phone at once to Miss 
Lee." 

But as they entered, the telephone bell 
in Miss Tapton's sitting-room was ringing 
sharply, and when Miss Tapton hung up the 
receiver she said quietly, “ Miss Lee is on her 
way. Will you all sit down, please ? " 

Beth Anne sat down on the couch, hoping 
that Marian would come over to sit beside 
her, but her roommate chose the piano-stool, 
where she sat looking very erect and wrathful, 
glancing neither to the right nor left, keeping 
her eyes fixed on Dorothy's pale face. Doro- 
thy chose an armchair, where she lounged 
slightly, avoiding Marian's angry eyes and 
affecting an appearance of cold indifference, 
though she was plainly very much disturbed. 

11 1 wonder what's going to happen?" 
thought Beth Anne uneasily. “ How terribly 
quiet everything is ! " 

She shivered a little as she sat there wait- 
ing for the quick brisk tread that soon sounded 
in the hallway outside, and when Miss Lee 


2 80 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


came into the room she was so glad to see her 
that she could hardly keep from rushing over 
to her and clinging to one of those warm kind 
hands. “ It will be all right now,” she said 
to herself. “ She’ll make it all come right.” 

And Miss Lee did make it come right, al- 
though Dorothy was stubborn and Marian 
was flaming with anger and a desire for re- 
venge, and although Beth Anne herself made 
it harder by trying to be helpful and bringing 
forward her ridiculous theory of sleep-walk- 
ing to account for the disappearance of the 
ring. Miss Lee had the whole story in less 
than fifteen minutes, in spite of all these hin- 
drances, and settled it in another five min- 
utes. 

It was a rather silly, stupid story of jealousy 
and revenge. Dorothy confessed, goaded by 
Marian’s relentless prompting, that she had at 
first merely wanted to tease Beth Anne, who 
was spoiling their fun by her goody-goody 
ideas, she said, and whose intimacy with Beu- 
lah was a grievance to her. She had gone 
into the study on the night of Marian’s ab- 
sence without any thought of what followed. 
The sparkle of the ring lying hidden among 


TANGLED THREADS 281 

the litter of papers on the desk had caught 
her eye. 

“ Poking around as usual,” muttered Ma- 
rian bitterly, and was quenched by a glance 
from Miss Lee, while Dorothy went on with 
her poor foolish tale. 

She had thought the ring belonged to Beth 
Anne, whose pretty clothes and dainty be- 
longings were more in accord with the jewels 
than Marian's plainer ones. She had pushed 
the ring into a crack in the desk, thinking to 
give Beth Anne a fright and some anxiety be- 
fore she should tell her where it was hidden ; 
and in the quarrel and her own slight illness 
she had forgotten it. 

Then, when she was in the infirmary and 
after her difference with Gwen White and 
Beulah she had heard Beth Anne speaking of 
Marian's heavenly rings as the two girls were 
passing the infirmary door, and she knew that 
it was Marian's property she had hidden. 
“ I was sorry, for I hadn't any grudge against 
you / 1 she told Marian, rather impudently. 
“ And then I thought about getting you both 
into a scrape, and I wrote the note. I might 
have known, though, that nothing would hap- 


282 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


pen to either of you two,” and then she sub- 
sided into a sulky silence, which the presence 
of the two teachers did not in the least abate. 

Beth Anne was tingling with relief and 
throbbing with pity, too, for the disgraced 
Dorothy. Now that the whole matter was 
revealed she felt very sorry for the sulky girl 
at whom the two teachers looked so sadly. 
When they all went into Number 19 to see 
the carpenter remove the side of the desk 
where Dorothy said she had dropped the ring, 
she slipped near the culprit while the others 
were intent on the unscrewing of the cracked 
panels, and she whispered, “ Don’t feel so 
bad, Dorothy. I guess they’ll forgive you, if 
you’ll only say you’re sorry.” 

Dorothy turned to glare at her, but when 
she met Beth Anne’s big blue eyes and saw 
the real kindness there, she flushed and hung 
her head, looking humbled and ashamed for 
the first time. She did not answer one word, 
but Beth Anne was glad she had spoken to 
her. 

The ring was found and given in Miss Lee’s 
keeping, and the carpenter dismissed with in- 
junctions not to speak of the matter to any 


TANGLED THREADS 283 

one. Miss Lee and Miss Tapton cautioned 
both Marian and Beth Anne to tell no one, 
and then they went back to Miss Tapton’s 
room, taking Dorothy with them. 

“ I wonder what they'll do to her ? " said 
Beth Anne, wandering about restlessly. “ I 
hope they aren't awfully hard on her." 

Marian gave an indignant snort. “ They 
won't be half hard enough to suit me," she 
declared hotly. “ I'd like to see her in chains 
and handcuffs and — and fed on bread-and- 
water for a year ! Serve her right, too, for 
telling lies about you ! " 

Beth Anne was rather uneasy under such a 
blaze of wrath. “ I don't think she's so aw- 
fully bad, after all," she said timidly. “She 
just got into it by degrees, you know. Don’t 
let's feel that way toward her, Marian. She's 
had the worst of it ; and we're all right now, 
— we oughtn't to be hard on her." 

“ Pooh, you're too soft-hearted," retorted 
Marian. “ You'd shake hands with the man 
who was going to chop off your head, I 
guess." 

She said no more against Dorothy, however, 
and as the bell for study period rang at that 


284 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

moment, the two girls got out their books, 
and sat down to their task. 

Marian fixed her eyes on the page and went 
resolutely at her French, but Beth Anne 
simply could keep neither her eyes nor her 
mind on the book. 

“ I wish ” she began and stopped at 

Marian's glance of inquiry. 44 1 was just 
thinking of something," she explained lamely, 
and went into her own room, without making 
herself clearer. 

She got out her writing-pad and she scrib- 
bled a hasty plea upon a sheet of paper, 
folded it with shaking fingers, and softly un- 
bolted the unused hall door. She heard 
voices in Miss Tapton’s room, and she slipped 
her note under the door, tapped lightly and 
then scampered into shelter, feeling easier in 
her mind now that she had done her little 
part. 

“ Maybe they won't be hard on her after 
all," she said to Marian as she went back to 
her studies. 44 I sort of feel it in my bones 
that they'll be pretty good to her." 

Marian did not reply at once. She stretched 
out her hand and took Beth Anne's fingers 


TANGLED THREADS 285 

into hers and squeezed th^u- so hard that 
Beth Anne squirmed. 

“ You're a little trump, B. A.,” she said in 
a low tone. “ Do you wish me to write, 
too ? ” 

Beth Anne bent forward eagerly. “Oh, 
would you ? ” she cried with flushing cheeks. 
“ It won't be too late, if you'll hurry. They're 
in there still. Oh, Marian, just a line will do. 
Hurry ! Hurry I " 

After the second note was shoved under 
the door she sat down in earnest to her Latin 
grammar. 

“ Now we’ll have to wait and see what 
comes next," she said, hopefully. Marian 
took up her French book with a little laugh. 

“ I don't care much what comes, so long as 
you're cleared," she persisted loyally. “I sort 
of kind of feel it in my bones, as you say, B. 
A., that it's all well over and everything will 
be all right." 


CHAPTER XVIII 


what Washington’s birthday brought 

BETH ANNE 

Everything did come right, as Marian had 
predicted. 

Dorothy, after a long stubborn silence, had 
melted at the reading of Marian’s note, and 
had asked forgiveness in an humbled manner 
that was very different from her sulky impu- 
dent air of the hour before. Miss Lee had 
consulted with the invalid Miss Cary, and the 
sentence of exile, which had been at first de- 
cided on, was changed to a fortnight’s suspen- 
sion, with promises of good behavior on Doro- 
thy’s part. 

All this had been conducted with the 
greatest possible secrecy, but somehow it 
leaked out, and Beth Anne’s part in it was 
magnified into much more than it had ac- 
tually been. Rumors grow among school- 
girls just as they do in other quarters and be- 
fore Beth Anne knew it, she was a sort of 
heroine among all the students. 

286 


WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 287 

44 Alice Sharp says we oughtn't to leave you 
out of the Sports/ 7 Beulah told her the next 
day. 44 Most of the girls are in something, 
you know. Will you take Dot’s place? You 
can start the song splendidly, and it’s pretty 
late to hunt up any one else.” 

Beth Anne would not think of such a 
thing. 44 I’d feel like a sneak,” she protested. 
44 No, I’ll be glad to do anything else, but I 
can’t do that.” 

So they had given Dorothy’s place to 
Dalton major, and found another occupation 
for Beth Anne. She was to give the signal 
for the start of the first-year events, and she 
had a gay blue-and-white flag with the big B 
on it that she was to wave as the monitor gave 
the word of command. 

Beth Anne was delighted with this agree- 
able post, and she wrote home to the G. S. C. 
in great triumph about it. She put in the 
usual stamps and sealed the letter with a 
flourish. 44 1 haven’t ever minded sending 
the money for the treats as Francie said 
I would,” she thought joyfully. 44 1 guess 
they’re pretty well convinced by this time 
that boarding-school is good enough for me 


288 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


for a while yet. When they get my letter 
about the Sports, they'll be surprised, I can 
tell them. It will make them open their 
eyes, I guess." 

The letter which Beth Anne was planning 
ahead of time really did surprise the G. S. C., 
although it was not at all like Beth Anne had 
devised it. 

The days before Washington’s Birthday 
were busy ones for them all. 

“ I’ll never catch up with my mending and 
extra readings,’’ Jinny told Beth Anne. 
“ I’ve spent ages on those posters and invita- 
tions, and I’m days and days behindhand.’’ 

Beth Anne giggled at the eight of the fat 
darning-bag. “ Mine’s getting pretty round, 
too,’’ she said gaily. “ It’ll take all the rest 
of the term to catch up. Marian says she’s 
going to burn up anything that gets a hole in 
it from now on. Did you know she’d heard 
from her father ? He’s coming back soon, and 
she’s awfully afraid he’ll want to take her 
home with him.” 

Marian’s father, with his Persian rugs and 
wonderful book-bindings and beautiful jewels, 
was a figure of romantic interest to most of 


WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 289 

the girls now, and Beth Anne’s imagined 
portrait of him as an eastern potentate in 
robe and turban had spread throughout the 
school, with the report of his wealth and 
learning, and had perhaps made Marian a bit 
more popular than even the swift Comet or 
her new clothes. 

Jinny did not appear so disturbed as Beth 
Anne had expected. “ I should think she’d 
be awfully glad to go,” she remarked absently. 
“ We’ll all be going soon.” 

Beth Anne looked at her in surprise. “ But 
Marian thinks she’ll have to go next month,” 
she said. “ That will leave me alone. I do 
hope he doesn’t come at all. The Twins have 
been expecting to be sent for ever since they 
came this term and they haven’t been. Per- 
haps Marian’s father will be like that.” 

“ Perhaps,” returned Jinny with unusual 
indifference, and then she asked abruptly if 
Beth Anne had heard from her mother that 
day. 

“ No, she’s late writing this week,” replied 
Beth Anne. “ I guess they’ve begun to travel 
about. They were going to a lot of places be- 
fore they came home, you know. Are you 


290 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

going over to practice now? We'll be late if 
we dawdle about much longer." 

They ran over to the Gym where the last 
practices were being held and Beth Anne for- 
got letters and darning and all in her interest 
in the scene before her. 

“ Although it really isn't a bit nicer than 
our Gym at home," she told Marian loyally, 
as her roommate was waiting for her turn on 
the ring. “ The Stepping Stones Gym is 
almost as big as this, and it has everything 
in it." 

“ I thought it was the other one that you 
always liked the best," remarked Marian, 
whose memory was very good. “ The G. S. C. 
meets in the other one, doesn't it?" 

She was called just then, and Beth Anne 
was left alone for a while. 

The picture called up by the words was 
very clear before her. Bess on the rings, 
swinging down the line : Claire with the In- 
dian clubs going through a simple exercise : 
the groups about the table where the glasses 
and the plates were arranged : the guests ar- 
riving in state and being shown to seats : — all 
the happy pleasant gayeties of the Gym Sat- 


WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 291 

urdays rose and shone before her, and for a 
moment she had another swift longing for the 
familiar faces and the dear homelike doings, 
such as she had felt on the night of the play. 

“ There isn’t any one like them,” she said 
half aloud, and Beulah catching the words 
nodded brightly, as her team came panting up. 

“ They’re a pretty good bunch, aren’t 
they ? ” she asked with pride. “ We’ll make 
the other classes sit up and take notice when it 
comes our turn, B. A.” 

Beth Anne laughed and nodded, and pres- 
ently forgot herself completely in the rush of 
competing teams. The practice hour ended 
and the girls streamed out to dormitory and 
study halls, and Beth Anne, between Jinny 
and Marian, hopped over the melting snow- 
crust in the very gayest spirits. 

“ To think that it will all be over by this 
time to-morrow night,” she said, with a 
prance. “ Oh, Marian, I know you’ll win the 
race ! I’m just crazy for to-morrow to come.” 

She laughed and chattered all that evening 
and went to bed declaring that she’d not sleep 
a wink for thinking of to-morrow, and when 
she hopped out of bed after a very good 


292 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

night’s sleep she rushed into Marian’s room 
with the brightest morning face in the world, 
calling to her to get up. 

“ The sun’s shining beautifully, and it’s 
Washington’s Birthday, you old sleepy- 
head ! ” she cried. “ Come, it’s Washington’s 
Birthday at last, and we’ll be late to breakfast 
if you don’t hop ! ” 

All that day she had a most delightful time. 
“ It’s just as nice as I thought it would be,” 
she told Jinny, as she was starting for the 
Gym when the great hour had arrived. 
“ I’ve had a gorgeous time already. Every one 
is so sweet to Marian now, and we’re all 
really-for-truly chums.” 

“ Like we are at Gable End ? ” asked Jinny 
with a queer twinkle in her big eyes. “ ’Fess 
up now, Babs, you think Brighton twice as 
nice as Centerville and you look down on the 

old Gym Saturdays ” 

Beth Anne interrupted her with flashing 
eyes. “ I do no such thing, Virginia Ran- 
dolph,” she declared hotly. “ The old Gym 
is the dearest place in the world. I think 
you’re horrid to say things like that ! ” 

Jinny smiled and seemed rather pleased 


WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 293 

with this outburst, but she said nothing fur- 
ther, as they mounted the steps and were soon 
lost among the crowd that were pouring into 
the building. 

Beth Anne's gay spirits came back in a 
wink as she saw Beulah beckoning her to 
her position, and she danced over the smooth 
floor and received the signal flag with such a 
shining face that some of the Seniors near by 
gave a little cheer for her, as she stepped to 
her place with the blue-and-white pennant 
waving above her curls. 

“ Hurrah for Brighton and the first^ear 
teams ! ” she laughed back. And then she gave 
a great start and stared with all her might. 

In the very first row, back of the rope that 
separated the spectators from the track, sat 
Bess, and Claire and Geraldine, with Mrs. Ham- 
mond’s pleasant face smiling beside them ! 

How Beth Anne laughed and waved her flag 
to them ! How she beamed and smiled upon 
the three dear faces ! She thought no faces 
had ever looked so sweet or so friendly as 
those four homelike countenances before her. 
The Sports took on a fresh delight for her. 
She told herself in a great flutter of pride and 


294 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

love that none of the girls at Brighton were 
half so pretty as Bess in her Christmas furs, 
or half so cute as Claire with her bright eyes 
and eager looks ; and she even went so far as 
to vow that dignified Jerry was every bit as 
sweet as Gwen White, or even Beulah herself. 

“ I wish old freckly Ben could have come, 
too,” she thought, missing the rest of the fa- 
miliar circle. “ It doesn't seem right without 
Francie, either. But oh, how jolly it is to see 
the girls ! It just makes everything perfect.” 

She could not leave her post, for the events 
were beginning with the first-year teams, but 
she fairly pranced with impatience to be done 
with the signaling so that she might slip un- 
der the rope and join them. Even the de- 
lightful task of starting the races dimmed 
under her impatience to be with the little 
party on the first row. 

It was some consolation to her, though, 
that they saw her in such a position of honor, 
and she shook out her flag at the first signal 
from the monitor with such a good will that 
she broke the staff and had to tie it up with a 
hockey stick for the rest of the first-year 
events. 



SHE SHOOK OUT HER FLAG 





WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 295 

She waved her crippled pennant in turn for 
the jumps, the high kicks, and the horizontal- 
bar contests, and she divided her interest be- 
tween the track and the front row, sharing 
her enthusiasm with Bess and the others by 
signals and smiles. When, at the very last, 
Marian ran swiftly in under the tape a whole 
head in front of Beulah and Dalton minor, 
Beth Anne could stand it no longer. 

“ Hurrah for M. Lathrop,” she cried, amidst 
the tumult that followed this final exhibi- 
tion of the first-year skill. “ Come along, 
Marian, and see them ! ” and grabbing the 
victor’s hand most unceremoniously, and 
dropping her flag into Dalton minor’s lap, she 
pulled Marian toward the little group. 

“ This is Marian,” she told them exultantly, 
as she dived under the rope. “ Here, Marian, 
come see Mrs. Hammond, and Bess, and every 
one ! Oh, how jolly to be all together once 
again. Squeeze up, Claire, and let Marian sit 
down. I’m going to scrooge in here, if you 
don’t mind,” and she smiled up into Mrs. 
Hammond’s face with such a beaming look 
that Mrs. Hammond stooped and dropped a 
kiss on her forehead. 


296 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

Marian was welcomed with much pleasure, 
and ensconced between Claire and Bess in a 
twinkling. Beth Anne, between Geraldine 
and Mrs. Hammond, poured out such a flood 
of eager questions and happy comments that 
it kept them all busy answering. How gay 
they were, sitting there in a cozy little group, 
watching the track, chattering excitedly about 
Brighton and Centerville and the G. S. C., — 
all in one breath ! 

Beth Anne soon found out that it was Ma- 
rian's treat. Mrs. Hammond had been invited 
by Mr. Lathrop, who had known Mr. Ham- 
mond in the far-away past, to bring the three 
girls to the Sports. “ He said we positively 
must come, or he should never be able to meet 
his daughter," laughed Mrs. Hammond. 
“ So, of course, although it was quite a trip 
and although the G. S. C. had another pro- 
gram mapped out for to-day, we simply had 
to appear." 

Beth Anne leaned forward to Marian. 
"And you never whispered a single syllable 
of it ! " she exclaimed. “ How could you ever 
do it? I'd have told it right out. You're a 
perfect wonder, M. Lathrop.” 


WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 297 

And then she turned to Mrs. Hammond, 
while the others chattered eagerly on, and she 
asked a great many questions which Mrs. 
Hammond answered as best she could. She 
found out that Mr. Lathrop did not wear a 
turban, for Mrs. Hammond told her that he 
had met them at the station in ordinary 
clothes, with a soft gray hat on his head, and 
no sign of a hookah or ankus about him. He 
was to take Marian home with him as soon as 
she elected to go. “ And he is hoping she 
will wish to leave at once,” Mrs. Hammond 
ended, beginning to clap with the others as 
Mary Hall finished the Junior hundred yard 
dash two clear feet ahead of the other con- 
testants. 

“Where is he now?” demanded Beth 
Anne, with a little tinge of dismay. A sud- 
den wish to fly to this intrusive father and 
beseech him to leave his daughter undisturbed 
popped into her mind, and she half rose in 
her seat as though to hurry out in search of 
him. 

He had left them at the door of the Gym, 
promising to be back after the Sports were 
over and he could venture into the buildings. 


298 BETH HNNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

44 He is a very pleasant gentleman, my dear/' 
Mrs. Hammond said earnestly. 44 And it 
will be a blessing for your roommate to have 
a father, after all the long years she has had 
to do without any parents.” 

The last race was being run, and all atten- 
tion was strained upon it, so Beth Anne had 
to be content to stare with the others, but her 
mind was really not at all with the swift fig- 
ures on the broad track. She was thinking 
that Marian was going to be taken from her. 
44 And just when we'd got to be such good 
friends,” she thought. 44 Oh, I do hope she 
will say that she'd rather stay ! I know Bess 
is going to like her, and I'd have her for next 
vacation.” 

When the Sports were over, and Jinny had 
joined them, and Beulah and Gwen and the 
others had crowded about the Centerville 
party, being presented by the proud Beth 
Anne, Marian slipped away unnoticed in the 
gay jostling throng, and was not missed till a 
little later when Beth Anne turned to put 
some question to her. 

The gay crowds were surging through the 
big Gym, girls were hailing Jinny and Beulah 


WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 299 

and a dozen Juniors were pushing up to be 
introduced to V. Randolph's friends from 
Centerville, so Beth Anne could slip away, 
too, and no one missed her as she stole hastily 
out. 

She saw Marian walking on the other side 
of the quadrangle with a tall man, and she 
knew who it was. Her impulse came back 
on her strongly, and she skipped across the 
campus, making a bee-line for the pair. 

'‘Oh, please don't take Marian away just 
now, Mr. Lathrop," she cried out breathlessly 
as she faced the two. “ Please leave her stay 
with me, I'll " 

The tall gentleman with the light blue eyes 
smiled down at her in a very pleasant fashion, 
holding out a lean brown hand to grip her 
small one. “ I have left that entirely to 
Marian," he replied, quite as though he were 
used to such sudden apparitions. “ We've been 
talking it over, and I have left it to her." 

He said a good deal more about his satisfac- 
tion that his daughter should have found a 
real friend in her roommate, and he showed 
a pretty accurate knowledge of all that had 
passed recently, but although Beth Anne 


3 oo BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

liked his brown pleasant face and his low 
agreeable voice, and although she wanted 
very much to stay and talk a while, she re- 
membered that Bess and Claire and Geraldine 
were waiting, and she danced off gaily, feel- 
ing that a rather disagreeable business was well 
disposed of. 

“ Marian’s to stay if she wishes to,” she 
whispered triumphantly to Jinny, whose big 
eyes clouded strangely at the news. Beth 
Anne did not notice it, however, for she had 
passed on to join Bess and lead her away on 
a trip of exploration. 

“ You must see our rooms and the recita- 
tion halls and chapel and all,” she told her 
as the two headed the little procession. 
“ Marian and her father are going to meet us 
in the library in half an hour. Hurry up 
there, Jerry ; you’ll have to skip if you want 
to keep up with us to-day ! ” 

She showed them the class-rooms and the 
refectory and all the rest of the school build- 
ings and would have taken them into the 
basement itself to exhibit the gaudy Comet 
if Marian had not protested. She danced 
about them, exulting in their presence, and 


WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 301 

she boasted about them to any of the girls 
who would listen. 

“It’s been too perfectly lovely to see you 
again, Bess dear,” she sighed, as she walked 
over to the station with them when the happy 
day was over and the twilight was beginning 
to fall. “ I’ve had a glorious time with you 
all.” Then she added, thoughtfully, “ It’s 
funny, though, how I miss, the boys. Or 
something.” 

Bess seemed to understand. “ I guess 
you’re used to us all being together so much 
that you want them all when you’re having a 
good time, — Ben and Francie, and Captain 
Jont and Polly Phemie, and — and ” 

“ And Mother and Father,” went on Beth 
Anne dreamily. “Oh, Bess, if I could just 
have them all here at Brighton, it would be 
wonderful ! ” 

Bess laughed a little at her ardor, and then 
they were at the station, and the good-byes 
were to be said while the train slid steaming 
up by the platform and porters and conductors 
and trainmen cut the partings short. 

Beth Anne waved good-bye until the train 
turned the curve, and then she hooked her 


302 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

right arm into Marian’s and her left into 
Jinny’s and she started briskly off through 
the twilight. 

“ We’ve had a splendid time, haven’t we?” 
she said joyously. “ There’s no one like the 
good old G. S. C. It was sweet of you to ask 
them, Marian. And oh, how glad I am that 
you’re going to stay ! I just couldn’t stand a 
new roommate.” 

“ That’s what I thought when you came,” 
laughed Marian. “ If you hadn’t been V. Ran- 
dolph’s friend, I think I’d have run away be- 
fore I saw you.” 

She and Jinny fell into talk about that first 
day, but Beth Anne became silent, walking 
along rather soberly between them, with her 
eyes on the buildings showing dark against 
the evening sky. The lights were beginning 
to glow in most of the windows, and sounds of 
laughter floated out to them as they came up 
the driveway from the street. 

“Doesn’t it look jolly?” said Jinny, as a 
burst of song came from the Seniors’ house. 
“The entertainment to-night will be lots of 
fun, too. I’ll come over for you two, if you 
wish me to.” 


WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 303 

Marian answered gaily, but Beth Anne did 
not hear. She was thinking of the happy 
day, and she looked at the lighted buildings 
before her with an absent air. Jinny had to 
repeat her question before she heard her. 

“ Of course we wish you to stop,” she said 
with her eyes still on the quadrangle of lighted 
windows, and she hesitated on the dormitory 
step for a moment before going in. 

When they had left Jinny at her own door 
and had reached Number 19 , she went to the 
study window and stood looking out over the 
campus and quadrangle while Marian busied 
herself with lighting up all three rooms. 

“ We want to look festive to-night,” she 
said as she came back into the study. “ We'll 
let them burn until last bell. It's a sort of 
celebration for all the dismal times I've had 
here,” she explained hesitatingly. “ To-day 
is making up to me for a good bit, B. A., and 
I want a special illumination for it.” 

She came over to the window where Beth 
Anne stood. “ It looks pretty gay for old 
Brighton,” she said, touching Beth Anne's 
hand caressingly. “ It's a nice sight, isn't 
it ? " and she nodded to the scene outside. 


3 o4 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

Beth Anne looked at it critically. “ I 
think,” she said slowly, “ I think that it 
doesn't look half so lively as it did to-day. 
Something seems to be different. I don't 
know what it is — but — but — it's different.” 

Marian laughed good-naturedly as she 
turned from the window. 

“ You're tired, I guess, B. A.,” she remarked. 
“ You had a strenuous time with that flag. 
How you did wave it, to be sure ! Hello ! 
here's a letter for you on the floor. It must 
have been dropped in while we were at the 
station.” 

Beth Anne left the window at the sight of 
that envelope. 

“ It’s from Mother ! ” she cried joyfully. 
“ I wonder where she is now ? ” 

She tore the sheets out of their covering and 
looked eagerly at the heading. And then she 
gave a little cry. 

“ Just listen, Marian,” she said, excitedly. 
“ Oh, just listen to this ! They're home again, 
— home at dear old Gable End ! ” 


CHAPTER XIX 


BETH ANNE DECIDES ONCE AGAIN 

Beth Anne's letter really was not at all dif- 
ferent from many other letters she had been 
in the habit of getting, but it made a great 
impression on her, to judge by the number of 
times she spoke of it during the rest of that 
holiday evening. 

When they were waiting for Jinny after 
dinner and the big bell was booming the hour, 
she said absently, “ Now they'll be going 
into the library to have coffee by the fire. 
You ought to see the fireplace, Marian ; it's 
three times as big as this one, and it's only 
half as big as the one in the dining-room, 
too." 

A little later she burst out, “ I wonder if my 
pony will know me when I see him again. 
It's a pretty long time till June." 

Later still she said musingly, “ It was 
queer the girls didn't tell me they were home. 
I suppose Mother wanted to surprise me, 
305 


‘306 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

They'll be having the Dramatic Club meet- 
ings pretty soon, — Bess said they hadn't had 
one since our house was closed. You ought 
to see the plays we give. Twice as pretty as 
that Junior party." 

Marian looked at her seriously from time to 
time, and Jinny smiled mysteriously as she 
saw how Beth Anne's heart was turning 
homeward. Neither of the girls made any 
comment, however, and Beth Anne went on 
all through the evening. She laughed and 
clapped very heartily at the speeches and the 
jokes in Recitation Hall, and she danced till 
she was out of breath at the first-year party in 
the dormitory parlors, but at the end she was 
still intent on the doings at Centerville, and 
she boasted so much about the cleverness of 
the G. S. C. to Gwen White that Jinny felt 
obliged to apologize for her. 

“ She's regularly daffy ever since the girls 
were here to-day," she explained gaily to 
Gwen and Beulah. “ She's done nothing but 
spout out praise of Centerville. You'd think 
there wasn't another place on the face of the 
earth." 

“ Neither there is," retorted Beth Anne 


BETH ANNE DECIDES 307 

warmly. She wondered at Jinny’s mocking 
tone. “ You used to think that way your- 
self, Jinny-pinny,” she added in a lower tone 
as they moved away. “ You used to say that 
you’d rather be there than anywhere.” 

“ Well, so I should,” answered Jinny with a 
flashing smile. “ But, you see, I hadn’t the 
chance to stay there. I had to be away.” 

She went off after Beulah and Gwen, who 
in spite of being only first-year girls, were 
fast becoming part of the group which Jinny 
and Alice Sharp and Mary Hall had made so 
popular. 

Beth Anne looked after her. “ Does Jinny 
seem different to you?” she asked Marian, 
who was waiting for her near by. “She 
seems sort of queer to me to-day.” 

Marian laughed. “ Everything seems to 
be different to you to-night,” she answered 
brightly. “ V. Randolph is only a wee bit 
gayer than usual. I suppose she’s enjoying 
the fun.” 

Beth Anne shook her head till her curls 
danced. “ No, it isn’t that,” she declared. 
“ It’s quite different. She’s hiding something, 
or she’s — well, I know Jinny Randolph and 


308 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

there’s something at the bottom of her 
speeches. I can’t tell what it is yet, but I’m 
going to find out.” 

A few minutes later she broke out again, 
following Jinny’s last speech. “ I believe I 
know what it is,” she told Marian as they 
took their places for the first dance. “ She 
knows that Mother and Father and Miss Ran- 
dolph are home again, and she feels pretty 
glad that I made up my mind to stay at 
Brighton instead of going back ” 

Marian interrupted her with a joyful little 
cry. “ Oh, you’re really going to stay,” she 
exclaimed, looking down into Beth Anne’s 
eyes with a glow of pleasure. “ Then I’ll tell 
Father that I’ll stay too. I was just waiting 
to make up my mind.” 

“ Why, of course I’m going to stay,” re- 
plied Beth Anne, rather taken aback that 
there should be any doubts on the matter. 
“ I’ve told you so ever since I came. Of 
course I’m going to stay.” 

Marian’s smile did not leave her lips, but 
her eyes grew keener as she looked at Beth 
Anne again. She said nothing, however, and 
they went around the room a couple of 


BETH ANNE DECIDES 309 

times in silence, while Beth Anne's jumbled 
thoughts went whirling off in a new direc- 
tion. 

“ Of course I’m going to stay,” she was 
saying to herself, while a picture of Ben's de- 
feated face rose before her. She made a very 
nice little scene of it, — her meeting with Ben 
and Francie after the school term had ended 
and the G. S. C. were gathered in the dear 
old Gym again, and she thrilled with triumph 
at the meek way in which the boastful Francie 
and the positive Ben had to humble them- 
selves before her. 

“ They'll see that I didn't change my 
mind, anyway,” she said to herself as she said 
good-night to the girls in the parlors and 
climbed the stairs with Jinny and Marian. 
“ I'm not that sort.” 

Still, the idea which Marian had suggested 
did not leave her easily. It followed her up 
the wide dormitory stair and haunted her 
good-night to Jinny. She tried to put it 
away from her by insisting on talking over 
the whole jolly day after she and Marian 
were in the little study again, but somehow it 
popped out of every memory of each event of 


3 io BETH HNNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

that pleasant day, and when she talked of the 
races, she saw the G. S. C. group in the front 
row and thought to herself what fun it would 
be if she were in the old Gym with them all 
again. And when she praised Marian’s gen- 
erous father, she was thinking that Marian 
was quite ready to go also. “ It wouldn’t be 
right to leave Jinny, though,” she thought. 
“ And, of course, I’m going to stay.” 

She put out the light and slipped into bed 
with this last word upon her pink lips and she 
drifted off to sleep feeling that she was most 
steadfast and unchanging in all of her deci- 
sions. 

She dreamed that Dorothy was with her in 
Mrs. Jont’s pretty garden. They were teach- 
ing Polly Phemie a new class song, and the 
G. S. C. were doing a hundred yard dash 
along the Back Road while her father made 
sketches of them all. She started up at the 
sound of the booming bell and stared about 
her for a moment. 

Then she sat up in bed and looked earnestly 
at the pictures pinned on the wall by the bed, 
— Jinny and her mother in the pony cart; 
Bess and Jerry on the swinging rings ; Egbert 


BETH ANNE DECIDES 3 1 1 

jumping the Ripple with Mr. Van Meter ap- 
plauding on the other bank ; the cast of “ The 
Little Brown Princess ” taken in the studio 
the day after the party with Pony Boy in silver 
paper trappings in the midst of them ; and 
last of all her mother with the Christmas 
star in her hands, smiling out over the green 
and tinsel with a real holiday smile on her 
pretty face. 

Beth Anne sat and looked at them one 
after another, cocking her bright head on one 
side and frowning a little in her earnestness. 

Then she looked about the little room 
where her pink rugs and bureau-covers made 
spots of pleasant color on the dull serviceable 
grays of furniture and walls. She glanced 
out of the window where the ruddy sun was 
shining cheerily on the melting, dripping 
quadrangle and she seemed to be contrasting 
it with some place else and not liking the 
quadrangle much better for it. 

The bell clanged its last rising call, and she 
hopped out of bed. 

She seemed to have made up her mind 
about something. 

“ Are you up, Marian ? ” she called, dancing 


3 1 2 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

through the study. “ Open your door, for 
I’ve something to tell you. Hurry! 
Hurry ! ” 

All her frowns and thoughtfulness were 
gone now and she pranced on the threshold, 
beaming on her roommate as she met her sur- 
prised gaze. 

“ I had to tell you right straight bang off, 
as soon as I knew it myself ! ” she cried ea- 
gerly. “ Oh, Marian, I’m going home after 
all, and I’m so glad ! ” 

Marian looked rather bewildered. “ Did 
you get another letter ? ” she began. 

Beth Anne beamed at her astonishment. 
“ No, I didn’t get a letter, but I’ve been 
dreaming about Centerville all night, and I’ve 
been thinking about it for ages and ages ever 
since I woke up, and I know that Jinny will 
miss me, and Ben will laugh, and Francie crow 
like everything, — but I’m going home ! I 
just can’t stay away a single minute longer. 
When I think that Father and Mother are 
there this very minute and Carline is in the 
kitchen cooking hot cakes, and George is 
bringing in the breakfast and smiling like — 
like everything, and Bess is over helping the 


BETH ANNE DECIDES 313 

twins with their school things, and Claire 
and Jerry and Egbert will soon be going past 

our gates on their way to school Oh, 

Marian/’ she ended in a great gust of feeling, 
“ I never knew how nice it was at home until I 
came away, and I’m going right straight back 
as soon as I can I ” 

Marian took her hands in her own. “ B. A., 
you’re doing just what I’d do,” she said ear- 
nestly. “ If I had a place like you have to go 
to, I wouldn’t be kept out of it, — no, not for 
anything. Lots of girls haven’t much to go 
home to, and they think boarding-school lots 
of fun. It’s good enough for them, but you’ve 
more than most of girls, and I’m awfully glad 
you’ve sense enough to see it.” 

Beth Anne squeezed back as hard as she 
could, and then she gave a little squeak as 
Jinny’s knock sounded on the study door. 
14 There’s Jinny, and we’re awfully late,” she 
cried as she flew to undo the lock, but she 
stayed to usher Jinny in and to cry out, with 
a rather excited little laugh, “ I’m going 
home, Jinny-pinny. I’ve made up my mind 
all in a wink, and I’m really-for-truly going 
home, after all ! ” 


3 H BETH 4NNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

She thought Jinny did not seem particularly 
cast down by her news, but she had to fly to 
dress, and in the delightful excitement of the 
next few minutes she had no time or thought 
for anything save hair-brushes and buttons. 
When she came out she thought that she 
caught a murmured “ hush ” from Jinny, but 
she did not notice it in her eagerness to ex- 
plain the sudden change in her plans. 

“ You see, I didn’t mind so much when I 
knew they were all pretty far away,” she told 
the others as they went down-stairs together. 
“ When Mother was in Florida, and Father 
out west, it was all right. But the very 
minute I saw Bess and Claire yesterday I felt 
awfully queer and lonesome, for all I was 
having such a good time. I just hated to see 
them go. And then I got Mother’s letter, and 
that was worse.” 

Jinny nodded. “ I know. That’s the way 
I feel every time I leave home,” she said. 
“ It’s a horrid feeling, isn’t it?” 

Beth Anne had a pang at the thought of 
Jinny’s loneliness, but she went on : “ Then 
I dreamed of Mrs. Jont’s garden and Polly 
and when I waked up, it seemed as though 


BETH ANNE DECIDES 315 

all the faces in the photographs were calling 
me. And so I made up my mind in a jiffy. 
Mother said I might, you know.” 

“ Fm going home for a little visit when you 
go,” Jinny told her, as they reached the 
refectory. “ I had a letter from Aunt Virginia 
and she's at Gable End, too, and we're to go 
on the noon train on Saturday, and they'll 
meet us at the station.” 

Beth Anne was too glad to hear that Jinny 
was to be with her on her homeward trip to 
wonder at the exactness of the arrangements. 
“ We'll go to see Miss Lee together, won't 
we ? ” she bubbled. “ Ob, Jinny-pinny, aren't 
you glad, glad, glad ! ” 

A sudden impulse seized her as she saw, 
through the glass doors of the refectory, Miss 
Lee coming into the arcade. She pulled Ma- 
rian with her and she hurried to meet the 
approaching figure. 

“ Oh, Miss Lee, I'm going home,” she burst 
out. “ I've had a letter from Mother, and I'm 
going back ! Do I have to get permission ?” 

Miss Lee smiled at the eager face. “ I 
think that is all provided for,” she answered. 
“ I had a letter from your mother myself, — 


3 1 6 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

just in case you should make up your mind 
to go home to them. It is all arranged that 
you shall go whenever you are sent for. It 
will be better for you to wait till the end of 
the week, however, since Miss Randolph is to 
make a visit at the same time." 

Beth Anne thanked her, and was moving 
to one side for Miss Lee to pass, when Marian 
spoke. “ I think I shall have to get per- 
mission, too, Miss Lee," she said quietly. 
“ My father has asked me to go home with 
him, and I have made up my mind to go." 

Miss Lee shook her head. “ What, you 
too?" she smiled. "We shall have a sadly 
dwindled first-year class if this keeps on. 
But I suppose you must go. I had some talk 
with your father yesterday, and am not un- 
prepared for it. But we mustn't be late for 
breakfast," she added as the last bell struck. 
“ Come and say good-bye to me, both of you, 
later on. I am sorry Miss Cary is not yet 
well enough to receive you herself." 

Beth Anne slipped into her seat at the long 
table with a gay good-morning smile at the 
two teachers and the lines of girls on either 
side of the board. She was thinking of her 


BETH ANNE DECIDES 317 

first view of that same table and of how much 
had happened in the five weeks that had 
passed. Beulah and Gwen smiled back and 
this time Marian was included in their greet- 
ings. 

“ The old partnership was some good after 
all, wasn’t it?” she whispered to Marian. 
“ We’ve become pretty good friends with 
them all.” 

Marian stared for a moment, until she re- 
membered the friendly compact that Beth 
Anne had tried to force upon Jinny and her 
roommate. And then she laughed a low con- 
tented laugh. 

“ It worked, in spite of us,” she confessed. 
“ V. Randolph set herself against it as much 
as I did, but it worked. You made it go, 
B. A.” 

“ No, I didn’t do it,” replied Beth Anne, 
slowly and ungrammatically. “ It wasn’t me. 
It just happened that way.” 

Her eyes were dreamy and she rolled her 
biscuit into little hard pills as she tried to say 
what was in her mind. 

“ I didn’t have much to do with it, you 
see,” she explained with one of her flashes of 


3 1 8 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

clear insight. " It was bound to happen, as 
soon as we really knew each other. Beulah 
and Gwen found that they didn’t like break- 
ing the rules after all, — that chafing-dish was 
Dorothy’s, you know, — and Jinny saw how 
nice they were as soon as she took the trouble 
to look at them twice.” 

"And how about me?” persisted Marian. 
“ You can’t say you didn’t wake me up a bit.” 

Beth Anne shook her head. " You’d have 
waked up anyway, when you had a new 
roommate,” she declared. " There aren't 
many roommates like Cara Williams and 
you’d have been bound to begin to like the 
other girls pretty soon. I guess your father 
would have made you get new clothes when 
he came.” 

Marian gave up with one last shot. "And 
who’d have begged Dorothy off if you 
hadn’t?” she asked in the same low tone 
that they had been using. " You can’t say 
that you didn’t help her.” 

Beth Anne’s eyes lost their dreaminess, and 
she dropped the hard little pills on the table- 
cloth, as she turned to face her chum. 

"Oh, do you think I helped her?” she 


BETH ANNE DECIDES 319 

asked eagerly. “ Oh, Marian, I'd be so glad 
if you thought so. I planned so many 
splendid things when I came here, and I 
haven't done a single one of them." She 
giggled a little as she thought of her glorious 
dreams. “ I've just scrabbled along any 
which way " 

“ What are you two up to over there?" 
called Beulah across the table. “ You’re jab- 
bering away as though you had gone daffy 
over night." 

Beth Anne flashed a hilarious look at her 
roommate, and Marian smiled back at her. 

“ We’re going home," they said in a sort 
of uneven chorus. “ We're going home to 
stay 1 " 


CHAPTER XX 


HOME AGAIN 

“ Did you say good-bye to them all ? ” 
asked Beth Anne. 

Jinny nodded. 

“ Every last one of them, and the janitor, 
too,” she answered gaily. “ Oh, Babs, to 
think we’ll see the good old G. S. C. in about 
one hour from this very minute. Doesn’t it 
seem too good to be true? ” 

Beth Anne shifted her coat and bag to the 
opposite seat, which the conductor had con- 
siderately turned down for them. Her face 
was rather sober and there was a hint of 
moisture in her blue eyes. 

“ I’m tremendously glad to be going home 
to stay,” she said, “ and of course I wouldn’t 
care to go back to Brighton, but it made me 
feel queer to have to say good-bye to Beulah 
and Gwen and Miss Tapton, and to think I’ll 
not see them again, perhaps. I’ve become 
320 


HOME AGAIN 


3 21 

sort of used to them, you know. And I'll 
miss them a little. You'll tell them I miss 
them, won't you, Jinny-pinny? I was so 
wild about going home that I didn't have a 
chance." 

Jinny smiled her mysterious smile. u Yes, 
I'll tell them," she promised and then she 
said eagerly, “ Oh, look, Beth Anne, we've 
passed Carbon. I always feel that I'm really 
on my way when we get onto the other rail- 
way." 

Beth Anne flattened her puggy nose eagerly 
against the window, staring out at the land- 
scape with bright eyes. How well she re- 
membered the mill by the bridge and the big 
silvery gray beech-tree bending all its long 
arms down toward the stream. 

“ There's the water tower at Blackton," she 
cried, “and see, Jinny, the wheat-fields are all 
as green as can be along that hill. They 
were covered with snow when I came with 
Father." 

She told Jinny about the black silk lady 
and the traffic officer who were her com- 
panions on that ride, and they chattered on 
in growing spirits as the train sped through 


322 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

the rolling country, past fields and villages, 
on toward the northern blue line of hills 
where Centerville lay. 

“ I wonder if Mother will be at the station ?” 
said Beth Anne, as the last curve by Jackson 
was passed and the train began the long 
straight rush to their home station. “ I guess 
she’ll send some one else. Perhaps there 
won’t be any one there,” she ended, sliding to 
the other extreme in her fear of expecting too 
much. “ Perhaps they’ll be too busy to send 
at all, and we’ll go up in the stage.” 

Jinny laughed at her. “ Perhaps and per- 
haps,” she mocked. “ Better wait and see, 
hadn’t you, goosey ? ” she retorted merrily. 
“ There, we’ve passed the whistling post, and 
we can see ” 

“Oh, there’s some one there,” cried Beth 
Anne, joyously. “ Oh, Jinny-pinny, there’s 
a lot of people there ! I can see lots of 
them.” 

Jinny chuckled as she pulled her coat collar 
about her chin. “Yes, but they mayn’t all 
be there to meet us,” she reminded the ex- 
cited Beth Anne. “ It’s Saturday afternoon, 
and, oh, goodness gracious, Beth Anne, you’ll 


HOME AGAIN 


3 2 3 

break your neck if you rush along that way. 
Here, wait for me.” 

She laid a hand on Beth Anne's arm and 
held her back as the train slowed down to the 
station platform, but she could not gather up 
their belongings and keep her hold on Beth 
Anne too, so she turned to the seat where the 
two small bags lay and began to pick up 
everything that was scattered there. 

Beth Anne had ears and eyes and thoughts 
for nothing but the station platform, and she 
was on the top step of the car as it slowed to 
a halt. 

“ Oh, there they are ! ” she cried. “ Oh, 
Jinny, they're all there. Mother and Father 
and Miss Randolph and all ! Oh, do hurry, 
we'll never get off the train." 

Beth Anne knew Jinny was just behind 
her as she reached the bottom step and 
jumped lightly down. She knew that much 
of her motions, and then she forgot every- 
thing in the joyful tumult that followed. 

She was in her mother's arms first, and then 
her father caught her for a moment. Miss 
Randolph had faded from her view when the 
jolly faces of the whole G. S. C. surrounded 


324 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

her, and Jinny, too, was missing a moment 
later. 

It was hard to find her voice among such a 
babel, and when she was whisked into the 
station by the eager club members and asked 
whether she would go to the old Gym on her 
way home, or if she would rather wait till 
she had seen Gable End first, she looked at 
her mother helplessly. 

“ I don't know what I wish to do yet," she 
said with a giggle. “ I'm so twisted up and 
so — so — wobbly with joy. I guess I'll go to 
the Gym on the way home, though. I shan't 
want to budge after I get home." 

But when they tried to hustle her into the 
big gray touring car, she turned to the car- 
riage where the smiling George was waiting. 
“ I'm going up with Mother and Father," she 
declared very unexpectedly. “ It wouldn't 
seem like coming home if I didn't hear dear 
old Major's clip-clop, clip-clop all the way 
home." 

Jinny had disappeared with Miss Ran- 
dolph, but Beth Anne had no thoughts for any 
one just then. She waved a gay salute to the 
club as they piled into the big car and sped 


HOME AGAIN 


3 2 5 

away, and she snuggled down beside her 
mother on the back seat, laughing and tossing 
her curls. 

“ It’s not much like the day I went away,” 
she said as she waved another salute to the 
man at the toll-gate. “ Do you remember 
how cold it was then ? I didn't write in my 
diary that night after all.” 

A memory of the old playroom as it had 
looked when she had run back after the red 
diary flashed across her mind and she laughed 
up into her mother's face. “ Did you see any 
pixy or brownie parties in there?” she asked. 

Of course, Mrs. Burton understood. “ Yes, 
I have seen a good many of them since I 
came home,” she replied quite as a matter of 
fact. “ The little people have been busy all 
about the house. They have kept it very 
nicely for us while we were away, and the 
fairies of the hearthstone have, I think, been 
the busiest of them all, for they have never 
let us forget them, no matter how far away 
we've been.” 

Beth Anne was much pleased with this 
fancy. “ I guess they were mighty busy with 
me at Brighton,” she said, dimpling. “ I was 


326 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

always remembering Gable End when there 
was even the weeniest fire on the study hearth. 
Who in the world has taken Ivy Lodge ?” 
she asked abruptly, sitting up and peering 
over the wayside hedge at the pretty white 
house next to Drake’s. “ It’s been empty ever 
so long, hasn’t it? Are they nice people? 
And are there any girls ? ” 

Mrs. Burton smiled as she answered, 
“ They are very nice people indeed, chick, and 
there’s just one girl, who I know you’ll like 
tremendously. But here we are, turning in 
at our own place now. Welcome home, my 
dear. See, there’s Carline waiting for you at 
the stepping-stone.” 

Beth Anne forgot Ivy Lodge at once. She 
flung herself out of the carriage before it had 
barely stopped, and was in her old nurse’s 
arms, kissing her wrinkled cheeks with as 
much ardor as if she were still the old woman’s 
toddling charge. 

Carline held her off and looked searchingly 
at her, and then she nodded gravely. “ You 
ain’t spiled none, — as yit,” she admitted, “ but 
don’t you come none of your new-fangly 
school-missy tricks on me arter bit, do you 


HOME AGAIN 


3 2 7 

hear ? If you tries to play hifalutin' wif your 
ole Carline, she'll shorely be obleeged to tek 
you down a mite." 

Beth Anne bubbled with enjoyment. “ I'm 
awfully grown-up now," she told her mis- 
chievously, “ but I'm pretty hungry, too. 
Got any more of those oatmeal cakes, Carline ? 
I'd love to have some for tea." 

Carline was delighted but she would not 
show it. “ Ain't shore you'll have no tea 
this day," she grumbled as she hurried off to 
arrange the tray. “ No, you ain't changed 
none, — always axin’ for somepin sweet. And 
gittin' it, too." 

Beth Anne danced along the box-edged 
path after her parents. 

“ It all looks perfectly beautiful," she de- 
clared to her mother when she found her be- 
side the library fire, where Jinny and Miss 
Randolph had somehow found places for 
themselves. “ Oh, it's lovely to be home 
again. I don't want to go out again to-day, — 
not even to see the Gym. I didn't know how 
sweet it was here, and I want to go over every 
single stick and stone on the place before I 
budge." 


328 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

Mrs. Burton smiled at her very happily, 
though she did not answer. Carline was 
bringing in the tea-tray herself and was com- 
manding a good bit of attention in the matter 
of little tables. Miss Randolph smiled at 
Beth Anne over the chocolate-pot which Car- 
line had given into her care. 

“ Don't you really want to go out again ? " 
she asked, with a glance at Jinny. “ We had 
something to show you, — a surprise for you, 
but if you don't want to go out, I suppose 
we can show it to you from here just as 
well." 

Beth Anne leaned forward eagerly. “ Oh, 
I'd love to see it here, please," she answered. 
“ If it's just the same to you." 

Jinny left her stool and drew Beth Anne 
to the window that looked toward Ivy Lodge. 
“ That's the surprise," she told her briefly. 

Beth Anne stared. “ I don't see any- 
thing in that," she said in a disappointed 
tone. 

“ It's our house,— Aunt Virginia's and 
mine," said Jinny proudly. “ We're going to 
live there right next door to you all the rest 
of our lives ! " 


HOME AGAIN 


329 

Beth Anne simply could not take it in. 
“ But you're going back to Brighton. You’re 
only here over Sunday," she protested. 

Jinny pealed out joyfully at her puzzled 
look. “ I've left Brighton, too," she cried. 
“ I packed every single thing I owned, and 
gave the keys to Miss Tapton before I left. I 
was so afraid you'd find out, and guess what 
was going to happen. Aunt Virginia wrote 
me last week, and I've been on pins and nee- 
dles ever since." 

“ So that was why you were so queer and 
different," exclaimed Beth Anne. “ I told 
Marian you were different, but she couldn't 
see it. Oh, Jinny-pinny, how perfectly splen- 
did it's going to be ! To think of having you 
next door ! " 

A sudden memory came to her, and she 
turned to her mother. “ Did Bess and the 
others know ? " she asked, and as she saw the 
answer in her mother's eyes she clapped her 
hands together and gave a little laugh. 

“ What a lot of secrets ; and I never 
guessed," she said. “ Oh, it's very exciting 
here in Centerville, — really-for-truly it is. 
Are there any more surprises left? I’d like 


330 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

to know, please, so I can begin on my choco- 
late before it gets too cold.” 

“ There isn’t another single thrilling thing 
to tell,” laughed Miss Randolph. “ You may 
begin on your chocolate as soon as you 
please.” 

But Beth Anne could not stay still. She 
fluttered about, examining the familiar books 
on the low shelves ; she stared at the portrait 
above the desk ; she admired the panel over 
the fireplace. 

“ It’s queer how much nicer everything 
looks since I’ve been away,” she said. “ I 
never knew it was so perfectly lovely here. 
It’s even prettier than I thought it was.” 

Mr. Burton, who had just come in, caught 
the words. “ So that’s what you learned at 
Brighton Academy, — that there’s no place 
like home?” he said with his nicest smile. 
“Well, it’s a pretty good lesson, and I’m glad 
you’ve learned it. I see you’ve been told the 
great news about Ivy Lodge, too. We’ve 
another deserter from boarding-school on our 
hands now.” 

Beth Anne blushed at the word, but she 
held her head up bravely. “ I don’t think 


HOME AGAIN 


33 1 

quite so much of boarding-school as I used 
to,” she confessed. “ It's fine for girls who 
haven’t real, real homes, but it wasn’t half so 
thrilly and romantic as I thought it would 
be. I shan’t care at all if Ben does crow over 
me, — I’ll say it a hundred times over.” 

She fluttered over to her father’s chair and 
nestled close beside him as he sipped his tea. 

The fire was roaring and crackling merrily ; 
the teakettle sent up a fragrant cloud of 
steamy vapor ; the pleasant circle of faces 
about the hearth looked very cheerful in the 
ruddy, leaping light. 

Beth Anne looked about with a sigh of 
great content, remembering all that was yet 
in store for her. 

“ Oh, please let’s ’phone over to Bess and 
the rest of them to come over here,” she said 
suddenly breaking in on the talk about Ivy 
Lodge and the next Sewing -Class meeting. 
“ I don’t want to go even to the Gym now.” 

Her father nodded to Jinny, who had risen 
eagerly at the words. 

“ That’s a good idea, Snippet,” he said. 
“ We’ll have the whole lot of them over after 
dinner, and we’ll have a regular old time in 


332 BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 

the studio to-night. We’ll have the Captain 
and Mrs. Jont, and all the Van Meters, 

and ” he broke off abruptly to look 

searchingly at Beth Anne who was still beside 
him. “You aren't feeling ill, are you, 
Snippet ? I’ve never known you to refuse to 
go to any Gym shindig before." 

Beth Anne laughed up in his face, and she 
shook her head till her curls bobbed. 

“ I’m weller than I ever was in my whole 
long life," she declared, with a flash of 
dimples toward her mother. “ But the 
hearthstone fairies just simply won’t let me 
budge from home to-day ! " 


The Stories in this Series are . 

BETH ANNE HERSELF 
BETH ANNE REALLY-FOR-TRULY 
BETH ANNE’S NEW COUSIN 
BETH ANNE GOES TO SCHOOL 


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JAN 19 1920 



